I'm trying to build a second computer for my kids. I took a system that had a bad motherboard and installed a new(open box) motherboard and new CPU. I thought the board or cpu was bad b/c I didn't get any video, but it tested out fine at the store after the CMOS was cleared (it was a return and the settings were not cleared before resale). Now I can get to the BIOS, but it hangs on "verifying DMI pool data". I'm not certain which hard disk has an OS but I have W2k disk to install - I don't think this is the problem, but will be the next step. Any suggestions? CASE: Antec SX830/840 Power PP-303XP 300W MOBO ECS N2U400-A CPU AMD Duron 1.6 GHz 64K cache 266 FSB RAM PC 2100 512 MB Video Radeon 7000 64Mb TVO Hard Disk 1 IBM Deskstar ATA100 61.4 GB Hard Disk 2 Maxtor ATA100 30 GB

Are you sure you have the master/slave jumpers set correctly? Do NOT use the cable select setting. It's usually best NOT to put both HDDs on the same cable/channel. Unplug one of the HDDs...you can always reconnect it after you get things straightened out. ASUS A7N8X-X Athlon XP 1800+ 8.5 x 200MHz 1024MB PC3200 2.5-3-3-7 Asus A9550GE/TD 128MB WinME/WinXP Pro SP1

I was able to get past the DMI data and start to setup Windows. The first two drives I tried to format and set up windows failed. The third drive has made it to 90% formatted, but this has taken hours - is this normal?? There were about 15 partitions on a 30 GB drive that I deleted.

Problem solved by setting and formating a smaller partition. Thanks