I had that problem once on a computer that had possibly had a power surge.
What type hard drive?
did you check mfg website?
I could still read data drom drive BUT had to set BIOS to not see HD or
computer wouldn't boot with drive connected.

reforamt drive will fix, I think but recover your data (using method above).

might also post in Hardware newsgroup.
microsft.public.windowsxp.hardeware

"Chris" wrote:

> During the boot sequence it says verifing DMI pool data and then it says boot
> from CD. If my XP home edition is not in the drive it says boot failure. Why
> does this happen? I checked my advanced bios setup and the first boot device
> is my floppy then my HD and then the cdrom. How do I make this go away
> because it is very annoying.