Two questions here: 1. Is your CMOS set to boot from SATA? 2. Was the SATA driver properly included when you installed XP? I had a similar problem years ago when my SCSI drive would not boot. In that instance, I had to perform a low-level format on the SCSI drive to make it bootable. In your case, this is clearly not needed, but something in your configuration is preventing the hard disk from being recognized as a boot device. Peter ----- The nospin group - [log in to unmask] -----Original Message----- I reinstalled XP pro on this Dell Dimension 8300 after a drive failure, and now it won't boot unless the Recovery CD is in the drive. Visit our website regularly for FAQs, articles, how-to's, tech tips and much more http://freepctech.com