Boot from CD?

go in the bios and set it to boot from the cd-rom first.

You get to the bios be pressing F1 or del as soon as the computer boots, if you can't find the setting restore to factory defaults and it will be included.

done that it didnt help

1. Get in BIOS and set CD/DVD optical drive as the first boot device.

2. Insert the XP CD and exit BIOS.

3. Press any key when "Press any key to boot from CD" shown on your screen.

Done!

tried that it just says press f1 to try again f2 to enter setup

Some computer Bios’ will only allow you to boot from a CD if it is the IDE secondary master drive.

yeah ive used the sec master and it doesnt work. im trying to reset the bios now by leaving tha battery out for like 10 mins...any more ideas

First of all check that the Windows instalation disc is bootable in another computer, make sure the CD/DVD drive is the secondary master, check that the CD/DVD drive works and can read the Windows disc, check the bios again that the CD/DVD drives are the first in the boot list, if it still doesn’t work then try re flashing the bios with the latest version, if you still cant get the windows disk to boot then you can download from the Microsoft web site a set of windows XP install floppy disks which will enable you to run the install program on the windows installation disc.

a) none of my comps have floppy drives excpet that one, but i mayb be able to install one in one of my other pcs, b)its a windows exe file, so i need to either have windows xp already on there, or do it with dos using a floppy (there we go again, floopy) and even if i find a floppy and install a floppy drive i dont know how to do the dos thing. yes, its the secondary mster and the 1st boot. oh, and ill needa botable dos floopy.

would it work to install xp on the hd with a different computer, then move the hard drive to this one?

No, this would not work.

oh well, i figured it out.....thanks for the ideas, though!
i took one cd drive out, and set the remaining one as master, and then it booted nicely off of the cd. its all up and running now. in fact, im typing on it right now while waiting for it to install sp3...