XP only boots from CD

[Guest]

Performed clean install of XP on new hard drive. Partitioned/formatted using
Western Digital utility, and from within XP installation (seperate installs).
Activated the installation with Microsoft. After each installation, have a
working system, except the XP CD must be in the CD-ROM drive at startup, or
else get the message "DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER".
Ran diagnostics on the hard drive, all OK. BIOS is set to boot from hard
drive. XP CD is an "OEM/Sold with new computer system" version, if that makes
any difference.
I have attempted this four times to no avail.
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[Harry Ohrn]

Don't use a third party hard drive utility to partition and format use XP's
partitioning and formatting utilities. Check here for How To Partition and
How To Format http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm

Try using the Recovery Console to repair the boot sector by running FIXBOOT.
Boot with the CD and at the screen that asks if you want to setup Windows or
Repair using the Recovery Console select "R" and launch the Recovery
Console. This is a set of tools and there is not fancy GUI. You will be
asked to enter your Administrator account. Just leave it blank by pressing
the Enter Key unless you do have a password. At the command prompt type
FIXBOOT and press Enter. When finished type EXIT, remove the CD and press
Enter. If that doesn't work try reinstalling XP again.