Booting OS on new build

[kecandeta]

A plethora of problems tonight.

MOBO: Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P
CPU Cooler: Xigmatek Dark Knight
RAM: OCZ Platinum 6GB
PSU: Corsair 750tx
GPU: HIS HD4890
HDD: WD Caviar Black 640gb
DVD: LG 22x

I don't know if you'll need these, seeing as how the problem has now gone from hardware to software. Then again, it could still be a hardware issue.

After getting my monitor to work, I went through the BIOS and changed the settings so the computer would boot off of a USB Flash Drive. The problem is that it won't boot from the drive. Now, I checked and checked and checked to see if, for whatever reason, the settings slid back into their defaults. Nope. It just isn't booting from the drive. It is recognizing it; just not booting off of it.

That said, what do I do?

(Sidenote: Both my Hard Drive and DVD-ROM are showing up as IDE Masters, which confuses me because my Hard Drive isn't connected as an IDE, but SATA. When I switch my settings in the BIOS to recognize SATA drives, it recognizes the DVD ROM as a SATA drive and not the Hard Drive. Is it supposed to do that?

If not, that's okay, but I'm certain I read somewhere that one of your drives is the Master and the other is the Slave. Most places say the common setup pits the DVD-ROM as the Master and the Hard Drive as the Slave. Perfectly fine. But, how in the hell do I get to that point?

The reason why I put this in here is because if for some reason the computer is recognizing the hard drive correctly and that's causing my Flash Drive to not boot, that'd be a neat little fix that I wouldn't have guessed otherwise.

Again, thanks a ton for all the help, guys. Bare with the newb.)

 

[kecandeta]

MORE INFO:

I set the BIOS to boot from the flash drive. When I do that, it goes past the "title screen" and where it usually says Verifying DMI Ports or something along those lines, and it stays there. Now, if you tell me to wait an hour for this thing to boot, I will. I've let it sit for about 5-10 minutes, but then I think something is wrong.

 

[kubes]

First thing to note:

Is your flash drive formated to be a bootable device? Google search for instructions on how to do this if it is not. (why are trying to boot from a flash drive in the first place?)
*Note* to install the OS set your dvd/cd rom drive to be the first prority of boot and then insert the cd, restart yoru computer and let'er rip.

Second
That is probally a problem that your hard drives are reporting they are IDE drives. Make sure in your bios that your hard drives are set to Native Mode (SATA) and not IDE Mode (legacy).

 

[kecandeta]

My DVD-ROM Drive is connected to the motherboard via IDE cables. The hard drive isn't. Maybe that's the problem. If that's the case, then I should get to fixing it.

I formatted the flash drive a week ago before I started building the computer, and about a half an hour ago, I reformatted it. As for why I'm booting it from a flash drive: My DVD-ROM wouldn't recognize DVD-Rs, so I decided to look for another route. Thought this would be easy enough.

 

[kecandeta]

When I format the flash drive, there's still a very tiny portion used up. Is that something I need to try getting rid of before making it bootable?

 

[kubes]

are you use a retail copy of windows?

It sounds mostly like you have some sort of bios issue deciding between what controller your motherboard should be using (SATA vs IDE). That's where I'd concentrate my concerns