Boot Problem

[SevenRavens]

I've assembled the computer. I originally tried putting the windows xp from my computer into the new one but later found out that does not work. A friend then told me about an OS called unbuntu. I made a copy of it and tried to use it but it did not work. I get this message saying reboot with proper boot media or insert proper boot media and boot with selected device. I've rearranged the boot priorities in my BIOS to boot the disk drive first but the problem still persists.

The hard drive I have is old and may not work. I found out that because unbuntu tries to directly boot to the hard drive it will not work if the hard drive is broken. I was given a linux live boot disk that would be able to boot without the hard drive. Booting that disk was an attempt to find out if it was a problem with just the hard drive or if there were some sort of BIOS configuration problem. The live disk did not boot meaning that the problem is with the BIOS whether it be a hardware problem or configuration problem I do not know.

Can anyone help me root out the BIOS configuration if there is one? Or provide any other tips or information. Thanks.

[MakeYourslf2012]

Firstly, Linux Ubuntu is nothing like Windows, its a very different operating system and gets things done differently. Its a great idea to learn how to use it, but in this situation, it would probably be best to get a legitamite copy of Windows XP. An OEM version of XP Home runs about $90 on www.newegg.com


Next - What kind of harddrive are we talking about and how old is it? what is the full configuration of your system?

[SevenRavens]

I know that ubuntu is nothing like windows. But I've seen it and used it. For my needs it is essentially the same.

The hard drive was taken out of an old gateway computer. Its about 7 years old. It only has 15 GB of memory and I have been told in the past that it was malfunctioning. It's Asus 775 socket motherboard with an intel celeron D 2.9ghz processor.