Well I got a new 120gb hard drive and it has windows xp on it and has been running fine with my older hard drive I had as a backup. I wanted to format the older hard drive so it would stop asking me which version of windows I want to start up. Well when I deleted the partions on it and restarted the error, (Boot disk error, please insert a system disk and press enter) came up. So I disconnected the old hard drive and on the new one put the jumper all the way to the left so it would be a master. The bios detected it as being a master and I have the start up so it goes hdd 0, hdd 1, and floppy. Now it keeps saying that error and I cannot get to windows. I also have the black wire go into the hard drive, the grey one is hanging loose, and the blue one goes on the second yellow plug in on my motherboard. Any idea why its saying that? Cause I cant get to windows.

See if this is the problem:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;330184

Your post is confusing.

IF your older HDD was the primary master & the new HDD was a slave, you must have had a dual boot setup? Formatting the old drive erased all the boot info.

Asus A7N8X-X
1800+ @8x210mhz
512mb PC3200
Ti4200/8X 128mb
WDC 60GB

so then how do I make it right again? lol thanks.

Ok im going to go ahead and reformat it. I have it set to master, the black cord is plugged into it, and the blue is plugged into the motherboard. I changed in the bios to boot the cdrom, cdrom, and then floppy. It still says boot disk error, insert a system disk and press enter.

Don't reformat, that's the LAST thing you should try!

Why don't you explain yourself & see if you can get some help 1st. Your post is confusing. I have no idea what you did.

We need a detailed explanation of how your system was setup before adding the new HHD. Then we need to know how you installed the new HDD (primary or 2ndary, master or slave). Then explain how you installed the OS on the new HDD. Lastly, we need to know what it is that you wanna do with it now.

DO NOT FORMAT! I have a major problem with people who think formatting is the "cure-all". Here's a little story:

I recently repaired a PC for a guy at work. His kids had it all messed up. It was such a mess that to save time, I backed up everything, formatted the HDD & did a fresh install of XP, including SP2, all the Windows updates. I tweaked it as best I know how, plus added a bunch of additional software. A few days later, the guy said he was having problems with WinME. I asked for details about the PC & he said it was the one I just worked on. I said, "I just installed XP on it less than a week ago?" He said, "yea, I know. I had a problem with AOL so I reformatted & installed WinME, now I'm having problems with the sound & a few other things". I felt like popping the guy in the face, but I told him to stick it up his a$$ instead....lol! I gave him a machine that ran perfectly & he blew it all away with a few mouse clicks. I refused to help him. Dumb A$$!

Asus A7N8X-X
1800+ @8x210mhz
512mb PC3200
Ti4200/8X 128mb
WDC 60GB

Thanks jam for bein helpful u da man dude.

Ok before christmas my system was like this.
a single 40gb hard drive with a cd burner. the hard drive was on master and so was the cd burner.

Ok then for christmas I got a 120gb hard drive and a dvd burner. First I put in the hard drive and hooked it up with the grey cable that ran out of the 40gb hard drive. The default was on Cable default.

Then I put in the dvd burner with the grey cable coming out of the cd burner. I formatted the hard drive and put Xp on it. I rebooted and it was running fast and awsome. YEY no more slowness. Then I first put the motherboard drivers on it, then norton systemworks, then my wireless internet, then the necessary windows updates.

After a few hours getting my new stuff on there and rebooting it would ask which version of windows I wanted to start up. Windows XP or Windows XP (new or old hdd). So I decided I wanted to delete everything off the old drive as I transferred everything I needed to the desktop already. I went into my computer and tried to format it.

It said that something was reading it and I couldnt format it then. So I went in manually and tried deleting everything. It didnt work so I restarted, changed bios to boot cd, and then deleted the partion on it. I then formated it and it said like Raw data or something like that.

It restarted, I changed the bios back the way it was and then an error, boot disk failure, please insert a system disk and press enter. I tried everything to get it working and right now my old hard drive is unplugged, the new one is set to master, the bios reads it, but I cant get to windows and I cant boot from the cd. It just hangs when I try. Thanks a lot man.

Damn I need to get this figured out man. Ill go try some different bios settings and changes in my comp. Nothing big or harmful to it tho.