If it's a brand new HDD, the use of FDISK is indeed reccommended.  Use it again, and view the partitions.  See if there is an "A" beside partition 1.  If not, then this is why it won't work.  The partition has to be marked Active ("A") in order for Windows to load, and the MoBo to accept it.

Ran fdisk again and there is an "A" in partition 1,so that is not the cause of the problem. Any other suggestions as to why i am getting this msg: invalid boot disk,insert boot disk in a:

Let's back up. Is the drive jumpered to cable select and recognized in the BIOS? If so, run FDISK from a floppy but delete any and all partition(s). Starting from a non-partitioned drive, boot to the ME disc and it should see the drive (as long as the BIOS does) and ask to partition it.

I've found it's better to let the ME installation disc do the partitioning.

I had the new drive set at cable select on the first install by seagate wizard software.When i called seagate,they instructed me to reset as master and redo using fdisk which i did.Jumper is now set as master. The bios saw it both ways    bios:Primary master-seagate 80gig Primary slave-none  Secondary master-cdrom Secondary slave-zip100

 

Ok, so follow my instructions. Let me know if that helps.

This reply is to osprey 4,I did as you suggested and deleted partition on drive and then booted to ME disk and let it partition and reformat drive and reinstall win-me. Same problem exists it goes to a: looking for boot disk.I rechecked partition 1 to make sure it was active and it is. I am wearing this new drive out reformatting and reinstalling windows this is the fourth time. Everything in the bios is set properly,and all files exist on the hard drive that should be there and are in the right places. Even when i disable the drive in setup and unplug the ribbon,I still get the msg:invalid boot disk,insert boot disk in a: I am seeing that darn msg. in my sleep(or should i say nightmare).

I'm missing something but I can't figure out what. I suggest you jumper the drive to CS again, set the first boot device to hard disk and try again.

My only other suggestion is to replace the primary IDE cable. Bring the old one in to CompUSA, Radio Shack or wherever and ask for a replacement. This is a cheap thing to try.

My first setup when i installed the hard drive was cable select and the new drive came with a new ribbon cable,it installed that way fine,o/s and boot partition was there but same problem,would not boot,loking for boot disk in a: The guys at seagate said do not set drive at cable select especially with new ribbon.

I downloaded from Dell support: Dell 4100 drive & disk controlloer diagnostic program ver.3.99B00 and ran it, floppy ok, zip ok hd read &seek ok but when i started diag on hd i got the following msg:device init failed:system not recognized,ddinit module loaded.