DIY computer just brought to life....."Inaccessible Boot Device"

Just powered-up my 'puter for 1st time and got the message "Inaccessible Boot Device" when Win 2K Pro had loaded about half way. All parts of this computer were new except for the hard drive. I've only learned enough here to get this far without frying anything, but now I'm stuck. Help, please?

FYI- It was suggested I do a "bench-build" and I literally did that. All parts are on a non-conductive surface connected to each other only by power cables. Didn't know if they needed to be 'grounded' as they would be inside the tower.

please clarify, did you reformat and reinstall Win2K or did yo simply use a hard drive with win2K allready on it?

I defragmented my hard drive, took it out of old 'puter, and hooked it up to the new MoBo. I went to Setup > Boot >Boot Device Priority and it lists my floppy as first and my HD as second, but both of these devices are in parentheses, and a note on the screen says "Devices in parentheses have been disabled in the corresponding type menu". Don't understand that.

You may have to reformat...I know it sounds like a pain but it solves like 99.5% of problems

Win 2K came on my old computer and it's the only copy I have. If I format I'm out an OS. I do have another 4GB HD and my roomates Win '98 disc if I can do something creative with those resources.
By the way....I haven't installed anything from the CD that came with the new MoBo...if that matters. Someone said I should fire it up with only the HD and video card attached.

What the heck is it with noobs that think Hard drives with OS's on them are plug n play devices? When windows installs it creates the HAL ( Hardware Abstraction Layer) that is SPECIFIC to the hardware that windows is being installed on. that is why you cant take hard drive that has an OS installed on one chipset and take it and expect it to boot on a different chipset. you MUST at least do a repair install of Windows if you expect to be able to boot. and it is far better to do a clean install.

if you have your CD Key then you might be able to pull off a repair install with another W2k CD.

Well, depending on what hardware it was before it may work fine.

Right now I'm just going to remove the HD with the OS on it and put in an old Samsung and install Win 98. I've got to have a computer for tomorrow. The last time I was here someone made it seem pretty simple to plug my HD into a new MoBo and not have to reinstall Win. "Play with the BIOS a little" is how they put it.
Thanks for the education, though. I'll look-up "HAL" later and see what I've gotten myself into.....lol. Good evening.