MMkay, I switched my ribbon IDE cables with my new pretty round IDE cables, and that is when my problem began. I boot my comp, it goes through the POST all fine, then when it gets to loading windows, it gives me an error, I will paraphrase. "BOOT DISK FAILURE. INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER"

I tried everythign I could to get that to go away, but alas, it would not. Then I found a VERY TEMPORARY SOLUTION!!!! (:-P) I put in my xp disk, changed boot order to read cd before my sata drive, and then when it says "press any key to boot from disk" I do NOTHING. annd let it boot to my harddrive, and it WORKS!

Anyone know why my system would need to have the xp disk in to boot? Very strange, considering I am not actually using the cd.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

Sounds like the bott sector died. Boot off the CD and choose the recovery console option. I believe the option to rebuild the boot sector is 'bootfix'.

EDIT: might want to run 'fixmbr' as well.

Simply switching the cables would not cause an issue unless.....

Did you...

Plug in the cables all the way?

Did you plug the master HD at the end and slave in the middle?

Are you using the correct pin type?

Could you have possibly bent a pin upon insertion?

Did you unplug the power and ground yourself beforehand?

Have you checked for changes in the BIOS?