Cannot install XP

[deadseasquirrel]

I'm over at my dad's house trying to get a new HDD installed with XP for him. He already has a system up and running perfectly. Specs:

DFI NF4 Ultra-d
2x 1GB memory
NEC DVD-RW
6600GT PCI-E
Seagate SATA 160gb
WD PATA 80gb
X2 3800+

This is his current config and all runs perfect with XP on the SATA.

Now, he just bought a 250gb PATA drive and wants XP on it as a second copy for testing new applications and whatnot. He's also been contacted by MS to test with Vista, so he knows he'll want to install that too on this separate drive once he gets the CDs in the mail.

I pop in his slipstreamed WinXP Pro CD, with none of the other HDDs attached except the new 250gb one. It goes through the "Win XP Pro Setup" and finishes at 100% and copies all of the files, then reboots in 15 seconds. Immediately upon reboot, it goes straight to repeating the "Setup is inspecting your computer's hardware configuration..." just as it had done (and completed) minutes before.

The boot order is correct in the BIOS. And the BIOS "sees" the 250gb sitting there on IDE1. The HDD and DVD are on their own IDE channels. I think they were on Master, and, when that didn't work, I switched them to CS, but, naturally, that didn't fix anything. What am I missing?

 

[bwcc]

What happens when you pull the CD out of the tray before booting?

Did you change the BIOS settings to boot to the 250GB PATA drive, instead of the SATA drive?

Since you pulled the SATA drive before installing XP on the 250GB drive, how is he going to switch from one OS to the other? You can install XP on the 250 while leaving the SATA drive in - the install should give you an option on which drive to install it on. This way, he can use a dual-boot and choose which OS he wants to boot from when the system starts up.