New UD3P Can Not Load Windows

I recently purchased a GA-EP45-UD3P with E8500 processor and SATA HD, to upgrade a working but slower system. No problem with install. Booted into CMOS and set some parameters, ie, USB keyboard, CPU clock ratio to 9.5 to recognize E8500, video to PCI-E, etc. Stock settings, no OCing. Plugged DVD drive into IDE port, HD into SATA 0 port on Southbridge controller set to default (IDE). No raid, only one HD.

DVD and HD are shown correctly in CMOS. Inserted HD utility disk from WD to partition/format HD, but get error (after part of CD is read) saying "No CD-Rom drive found".

Tried the following:

1. Two other DVD's known to be good - same result.
2. Changed cable from DVD to IDE port on MB - same result.
3. Changed DVD from master to cable select - same result.
4. Changed Southbridge SATA controller to "raid". Error message now "disk boot failure".
5. Tried Gigabyte Utility CD that came with MB - gets to Xpress Recovery2 screen and stops.
6. Tried GSATA controller (purple slots) for HD - same result.
7. Tried XP Pro install disk - "disk boot failure".
8. Tried one stick of ram only - same result.

Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

Specs: Ram: G.Skill 2x1GB (installed in red sockets). HD: WD Caviar Black WD6401AALS. PS: Antec
550W. Video: BFG GeForce 8800GTX. DVD R/RW: Memorex 8X Model 3202-3269.
CPU cooling: Zalman CNPS7700-CU

make sure the boot order in the bios is set with the optical drive before the hard drive, and then stick in the windows XP cd again.

The boot order is set to optical drive first, and hard drive second. With that setup, the XP install disk presents an error saying "disk boot failure, insert system disk and press enter".

Problem seems resolved. I found a back up copy of the xp install disk and tried it. Lo and behold, XP loaded from this copy.

Perhaps the original XP disk had become corrupted, or the stars fell into alignment or something.... whatever, the problem seems to be resolved. However, I still do not understand why the hard drive utility disks would not load and let me partition and format the drive prior to loading windows.

Anyway, thanks for the input..