Non-system disk or disk error

[Guest]

When I boot the computer I get "Non-system disk or disk error".

2 IDE channels used:

channel 0: maxtor 2B020H1 (Fireball 541DX) set to maste
http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/M...t/Desktop Storage/Maxtor Other/Fireball 541DX
channel 1: 1xLG GSA-H10A set to master + 1xGenerix CD-ROM drive set to slave

I have double checked the IDE cables, they work. Even changed jumper module
to make sure the "jump" is made on the hard drive. This is not the problem.

If I go into Recovery Console from winXP CD I get the message "The path or
file specified is not valid.", tried the "fixmbr" command but it doesn't
work. When I first get into RC the "C:\" is what is at prompt, if I go to
"D:\" and do a "dir" command the contents of the winXP CD show up. If I want
to go to drive "C:\" from that point I get the message "The path or file
specified is not valid."

If I try to install windowsXP again, at the partition setup process there is
no hard drive, just a message "(Setup cannot access this disk.)".


I tried with a different hard drive, the Fujitsu MPD3084AT (10GB), but I get
the same results as mentioned above.

In the BIOS both hard drives show up fine when connected. So how can I fix
this ???

 

[Guest]

also, no floppy or USB drive are in. machines boots from the master cd-rom
then HDD