Dual Booting Linux

[fileserverdirect]

Hey Guys,
I was helping out my friend with his computer, and for some reason windows does not start. He custom bulit it in 2002, and he has not ran it since. He wants to dual-boot linux on it. I will download linux for him, but I do not know how to install it when the first operating system does not even start. I comes up with a "Please insert the system disk to boot up" type-of-message. He does not have the disk, so I don't know how to do this. (That is dual booting linux on to it).
Can Anyone help

[Twey]

He does not have the disk, so I don't know how to do this.

Uhm, well, that's what you download.

[fileserverdirect]

I meant that he does not have the boot disk for XP, I downloaded Ubuntu (or whatever) to a disk and we can not get it to execute properly. I figured that GRUB could be the "switcher" and besides, we cannot even get windows to run anyways... How can we get the computer to boot from disk?
-FSD

[Twey]

I'm not sure quite what the issue is. You don't have your Windows disk... but you want to install Linux anyway, right? If you're having trouble booting from a disk, go into your BIOS setup and make sure that the CD-ROM drive has a higher boot priority than the hard drive.

[fileserverdirect]

Hi, yes, he does not have the windows xp boot disk, but there is a ton of software installed on it, and he wants to put linux on it as well.
-- The bios is set to cdrom just as a note, but the part where it stops loading is when is says "looking for IDE pool" or somthimg like that, and when it says to enter a cd, I enter the ubuntu disk, and nothing. I do not understand what is going on.

[Twey]

-- The bios is set to cdrom just as a note

This sentence is incomprehensible. Please rephrase/translate.

You are meant to boot up with the disk already inserted, so that the BIOS can boot to it. The 'please insert a disk' prompt is probably the broken Windows installation attempting to fix itself.

[fileserverdirect]

What I meant was that I set the BIOS Configuration to set the primary boot device to CD-Rom.

It does not look like a windows prompt, It seams like a general manufactuAR'S message. (like the system configuration of the pc, like and HP Laptop)

[Twey]

I repeat: You are meant to boot up with the disk already inserted, so that the BIOS can boot to it.

Also, what do you mean 'and nothing'?

[fileserverdirect]

Yes, I put the disk in and then I restarted it, the BIOS was set to boot from disk.
"and nothing" -Nothing happened, it did not work, It said cannot find IDE pool, please insert system disk and press enter , in other words it did not work.

[Twey]

Hmn. And the BIOS is definitely set to boot from disk first? Is this drive confirmed to be working?