Cannot boot without XP CD

I recently formatted my computer because of numerous problems (suffice it to say that it is a long story...). Anyway, I had Fedora Core 3 Linux on one drive, and XP Pro Sp 2 on the other drive.

Because of all the problems, I wanted to completely clean up my drives, so I got a low level formatting tool from Seagate (the maker of my hard drives), and zero-filled both of them. Then I booted off the XP cd so that it would go into the setup program. I formatted one of my drives for XP and proceded to set it up. I rebooted with the CD in to finish all the setup stuff. When that was done, I changed the boot order in the BIOS, took out the XP CD, and rebooted.

The computer went through it's normal POST activities, and right when it came time to load up XP, it just hung there. There were no errors or anything. There was just a cursor sitting there blinking. I rebooted my computer and this time set up the CD drive to boot first. I put the XP CD into the drive and rebooted. Went through POST fine, and then said "Press any key to boot from CD..." I didn't press anything, and XP started up properly.

Does anyone know what is going on?? I have not been able to boot without having the CD in the drive, but it seems like once I have Windows up and running, everything behaves fine. I can take out the CD and do anything as normal. I looked for the boot files (boot.ini, ntldr, and NTDETECT.COM), and they are all there and look normal.

If this helps, here are my specs:

AMD FX-53
Thermalright XP-120
ASUS AN8-SLI Deluxe
NEC 3500A DVD-RW
Plextor PX-716SA SATA DVD-RW
Kingston HyperX PC3200 @ 2-2-2-5
Seagate 80gig SATA x 2
PC Power & Cooling Silencer 470 Watt
Audigy 2 ZS
ATI X800 XT PCI-E
Viewsonic VP912b

Current hard drive setup
Hard drive 1
Partition 1 - 20 Gig - C: drive (XP Pro SP2)
Partition 2 - 54 Gig - D: drive (data drive)

Hard drive 2
Not partitioned yet. Will hold Linux when I get the xp problems worked out

Quote:

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I formatted one of my drives for XP and proceded to set it up. I rebooted with the CD in to finish all the setup stuff. When that was done, I changed the boot order in the BIOS, took out the XP CD, and rebooted.

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What boot order did you change, from CD-Rom to the HD ?

The only thing I'd suggest since this is a clean new install is XP Repair or format the drive and start over.

i agree the easiest thing to do would be to repartition the drive, just to make sure that everything is clean, then reinstall

To start off with, I had the boot order like this:
1. Removable Disk
2. CD
3. Hard Drive
This was to zero fill the drive (the Seagate disks were floppies)

When I had done that, I changed the boot order to this
1. CD
2. Hard Drive

I booted from the XP cd, and did the standard Windows format before the install. When all the setup was done, I changed the boot order again:
1. Hard Drive
2. CD

The only way my computer will boot up is if I have it
1. CD
2. Hard Drive

And even then, the XP cd must be in the drive. It will not boot up like this
1. Hard drive
2. CD
even if the XP cd is in the drive

I'll try reformatting, but I'm not sure it will help given the fact that I've tried that several times. Anyway, thanks for the help... You can be sure I'll be back if it doesn't work!!

Prob a silly question but are the jumpers and the ribbons properly set?

Master/sec master ... Slave/sec slave etal?

u should try formatting every drive then reinstall windows. Cuz i think the problem u got is b-cuz of Fedora Core 3 Linux . I had the same prob with Gentoo but that was a different case, but if it helps u should wonder if u got an MBR EROR.
http://www.techzonez.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3975