Won't boot from HDD

[RedWagon]

You might want to try editing the grub menu. No linux distro has ever gotten the hard drive numbering right on my desktop and I have to do this every time I install a new OS. When the grub menu comes up hit escape and then enter for OK then you should get the classic blue and black grub boot menu. Hit e and then e again and change the numbers in hd(0,0) press enter to save changes (do not hit esc) and then b to boot. No permanent changes are made to the grub menu, this is just a way to find the right settings and get into your OS, then from there you can make the permanent changes to the grub menu.

The hd(0,0) is telling grub which partition to boot, first is the disk number and second is the partition. My computer usually gets the disk number wrong and I have to change hd(1,0) to hd(0,0). What the actual numbers are will depend on your setup, but the second number should be right IF you are having the same issue I do.

This may or may not fix it, but it is something easy and quick you can try. One thing to keep in mind though, if you are getting to Grub, even if you are getting errors from Grub, you don't need to mess with the boot order in your BIOS. The boot order helps find the Master Boot Record and if you're getting to Grub, the boot order set in the BIOS has done its job and can no longer effect what happens to your computer. "Failed to boot disk, please insert disk and pres ENTER" and the hang on "Verifying DMI Pool Data" happens during POST, before the MBR is loaded and in those cases the BIOS boot order may get rid of them.

Wow, this post ended up being really long...
In summary:
Step 1. Get to grub - do what you have been doing to get grub anything. As long as you see grub on your screen step 1 is complete.
Step 2. Correctly configure grub - Stop messing with boot order and different hard disks and try the steps I listed. Even if they don't work, post EXACTLY what it says and the settings you tried. If you can get some specific errors from grub we can diagnose this easier.

[RedWagon]

Download Super Grub, burn it to a disc and try some of its automated tools. It has helped me numerous times and can find OS installs, configure grub and install it to the MBR. The only problem is I have no idea how to use it, I just kind of guess and check and somehow it has always pulled through. It has help menu built in so you're not flying completely blind.
http://www.supergrubdisk.org/
Also as you get different errors, please post them. This could very well be a hardware issue. I'd hate to waste a bunch of time trying to get grub to load when the POST isn't even finishing.

[RedWagon]

I looked up the Verifying DMI thing some more and it doesn't look good. There is no way for me to tell whether or not this is a hardware or software issue until you get this thing fixed. It is hard for me to tell what to do without seeing the actual comptuer, but this is how I would proceed.
Try Super Grub first, since it is the easiest.
Make sure all IDE hard drive and CD ROMs have jumpers set to cable select. (try booting and/or installing grub again)
Remove all hard drives but the one you are installing the OS. (try booting and/or installing grub again)
Set BIOS to defaults (try booting and/or installing grub again)
Clear the CMOS (try booting and/or installing grub again)
Remove everything not absolutely require for the PC to run, including PCI cards. Leave only your video card, one hard drive, one CD drive, keyboard, CPU and RAM. Something may be keeping it from booting. (try booting and/or installing grub again)
Upgrade the BIOS (try booting and/or installing grub again)

I'm kind of thinking out loud here, just putting down my thoughts and maybe you will get some of it and help everyone understand the problem... A computer freezing at verif DMI is most likely a hardware or BIOS issue, but the fact that you can boot to the live disc points more towards a software problem, though if it were only a software problem you should get some sort of response when booting to the hard drives fail, like the "Failed to boot disk, please insert disk and pres ENTER." It is possible that it's starting and handing control of the computer over to an MBR which is then locking up and preventing anything else from being displayed so in short, completely eliminating hardware or software is impossible at this point. I would count anything showing up after verif DMI a success, even if it's a "Failed to boot disk." Getting a fail to boot disc at this point would mean you either A. fixed a hardware problem or B. removed something that the computer was unsucessfully trying to boot to and locking up on. hmm...

Try as much as you are comfy with of the list above. Only upgrade your BIOS if you are sure you know how to do it, I feel rather skeptical about listing it at all because it is so risky, but if all else fails it could help. Sorry this isn't an easy problem to fix.

[RedWagon]

Wow. Uh, giant confused aside, this puts us a little closer to the answer. I Googled around and Grub Disk Error is one of the tougher ones to fix. I would try Super Grub again, and if that doesn't work try following this tutorial
http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/ ... th_Live_CD
...and this is where I run out of good advice. If you can get a more specific error, like Grub Error 15, I might be able to help more, but for now I'm out of ideas. Hopefully someone smarter than me will chime in soon...

The XP disc has nothing to do with Linux, what probably happened is Grub is being told conflicting things as to what drives do what and either having the CD in the tray somehow made the computer recognise everything in the right order, or the computer tried to boot to the CD any ways and failed and accidentally booted the hard drive instead.

Try removing the CD drive from your system then booting, also did you check to make sure your jumpers are correct?

[RedWagon]

on the back of any IDE hard drive or CD drive.