Just put together a new system. Powered up and is recognizing all drives (CD, DVD, HDD). Bios screen comes up and initialization is ok. It then ask for system disk in drive. I put it in the CD drive and continually get the Disk Boot Failure error message. Changed the Boot sequence to CD-ROM, HDD and disabled Floppy with no luck. Checked CD Drive in seperate computer and it read fine. Also checked IDE cable in different computer with no problems.

I am now unsure how to proceed. Is there something else I can try?
Is there a way to eliminate other possible causes?
Is it HDD?

Thanks for the help.

Could be a variety of things. You said IDE cable.. so what are your jumper settings on the back of the HDD? Is the HDD on its own cable or is it sharing a cable with one of the optical drives?

Also, this error could indicate a failed drive or it could be SMART getting a false positive. Try disabling SMART in your BIOS if possible.

Also, try resetting your BIOS.

Another thing to consider is that maybe your boot CD is bad (a scratch)
Try some other disks that you know boot up

double check your cables and everything qwertycopter said too lol

If you are using a SATA drive, try an IDE instead.

Or you could download a boot disk like Windows 98, boot from the floppy and run the CD:

http://www.bootdisk.com/

IDE cable on CD-Rom only. HDD is Sata. Each drive has it's own cable. Had Rom drive jumper set to master, then switched to cable select. No luck.
I also have no internal speaker on the board or case to listen to possible error codes.
As far Bios once I switched the boot sequence I am unable to get back to it. It immediatley goes to boot from the CD and the error message starts.

Also I have no Floppy drive.

Thanks for the suggestions and help. Will let you know how I make out.

In case I'm not clear, what I am attempting to do is install the operating system and that is the Disk I'm attempting to boot to. It's XP SP2. This is only my second build so maybe I'm missing something.

Thanks again.

Greg

chack that u have ur Cd drive is ur 1st boot device in the BIOS settings and try again!

If you can install a floppy, use this:

How to obtain Windows XP Setup disks for a floppy boot installation

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994

I have no floppy drive. Is it possible to download a bootable startup disk to CD or dvd?

Turns out it was the disk. Was able to boot to a new disk and install. Thanks for all the help.