I'm not sure where the right forum for this is but here goes.

I'm trying to build my first computer from the ground up, and it isn't working. The computer will boot up and post fine and I can get into the bios with no problems. Everything is configured correctly, all of my hardware is detected, the boot sequence is set right, but I cannot get this machine to boot from a disk. After post I get this perfectly normal message;

"Reboot and Select proper Boot device
or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot Device and press a key"

If I put a Windows Vista disk in the drive the blinking underscore drops down a line and just sits there. I let it sit for over an hour and still it blinks away at me, mocking me. Ive tried this over and over again and double checked everything a few more times then what would probably be considered sane and it refuses to boot from the disk. Now the odd thing is if I insert a Windows XP disc it does the same thing, but after about a minute it just prints that message on the screen again and waits for me to press any key. Once its read the disc and decided its not good enough I can press the any key all I want and it keeps printing that message on the screen, but without the one minute delay. If I put any other random non bootable disk it doesnt take a minute, regardless the size of the disk, it instantly recognizes it as non-bootable and prints that message on screen as soon as I press a key. That part confuses the hell out of me.

The computer is making a distinction between one disk and another but it wont let me install windows. Im completely lost. Am I doing something completely obvious wrong? Is a Windows disk not a considered a boot disk? Am I absolutely required to buy and install an ancient floppy drive to install windows? I need ideas, I need help. Here's the hardware by the way...

MOBO: Biostar TA790GX A2+ (Tested working)
CPU: AMD Phenom 9850 (Tested working)
RAM: 2x 1GB OCZ Fatal1ty DDR2-8500 (Tested working)
VIDEO: On board for now. (Don't feel like throwing any extra crossfire problems into the fire just yet)
HDD: WD 500GB 7,200 RPM SATA II (Brand new)
DVD: Writemaster 20x DVD±RW SATA II (Brand new)

Im in the middle of joining and posting this on every tech forum I can fine. I really hope someone can help me figure this out, I'm totally out of ideas.

Make sure that the either

1. The HDD is set for Primary Master (MA) and the DVD-RW for Primary Slave (SL)
or
2. Both are set for Cable Select (CS)

Master and Cable Select only apply to IDE drives, mine are both SATA. The DVD drive doesnt even have jumpers, and WD SATA drives do not need any jumpers by default. I've already checked the jumper settings on the website.