It is set to master

Originally Posted by DJNafey

Myronbg,

If your CDROM drive isn't listed immediately after your hard disk (at the POST stage when it lists your memory, etc), then it sounds like the BIOS hasn't detected that there is a CDROM present. Therefore, on the basis that there's no CDROM in your PC, it won't try to boot from it.

Missing CDROM drives are a surprisingly common problem. So common in the D-A-L.com forums, in fact, that I wrote an article explaining how to fix it a week or so ago ! Have a look in the "Member's PC Help Articles" section of this forum and you'll find my article about auto-detecting hard disks / drives.

Let us know if that helps (or if you tried that ages ago!)

I did a search of your articles and found the one about missing drives.. didn't see anything that we haven't tried as yet.

Originally Posted by Myronbg

I re-built the computer from the MB up. It's a relatively new CDRW and it does work fine. I have had problems with the old MB, if I put a CD in it I would need to "run" to boot, but if I left a non-bootable cd in it from the initial boot (like Street Atlas, which is a data disc) then when I would install a CD it would work fine). This happens with my the new MB as well.. although I'm not toooo sure as the "auto run" wasn't opted.
I also have a DVDRW which is un-plugged (and not recognized) as I've been told that having 2 CDROM's can cause it not to boot to the CDROM.. I aslo tried un-plugging the CDROM and plugging in the DVDRom (also fairly new.. and works fine) and got the same results

i've seen several cd drive issues where it is advised to leave a blank cd in the drive at all times in order to address similar problems above.

otherwise i am still looking around & hmmmming

have you tried to take the cable to the HDD that the BIOS sees & put that cable into the CD drive? just to see if it sees that way?