[Mazzy79]

I just changed my friend's hard drive and did a clean install of windows xp. I installed a WD HD but i'm having problems booting from it. sometimes it boots Windows XP from the HD perfect and sometimes it asks for a cd to boot from. i went into the BIOS a multiple times, under boot sequence sometimes it reads the WD HD and sometimes it doesn't. This is the only HD in the computer connected as slave (it wouldn't accept as a master). would that be a problem with the BIOS and it needs to be updated or is the hard drive defective?

[win2kpro]

#1, a boot hard drive shouldn't be installed as a Slave drive. You need to make sure you have jumpered the drive correctly, and that the drive is connected to the Master position on the IDE cable.

If the drive is jumpered correctly, and is in the proper position, go to the WD site, download their diagnostic program, burn the diagnostic program to a CD, boot from the CD and run the program and see if it comes up with errors.