I just unistalled windows so I can install Gentoo. When booting up it says there are no arrays and when I enter the array creation/deletion utility I cannot select any of the iptions. They are all ghosted over. This happened after I damaged my cpu and reinstalled it. I could still boot into windows. Now that I've unistalled windows it won't boot from a cd. It says ATAPI not compatible. I've tried 3 cd-roms and all the jumper settings as well as two ide cables. I can boot up with a floppy, but that's all. Any idea I'm completely stuck on what to do.

If you are using an old machine, the BIOS may not support booting from cd rom. If not, you will have to make a boot floppy with either Windows or Linux. Sometimes the BIOS can be upgraded from the MB manufacturer.

Also some machines will only boot from a cdrom if it is the master on the IDE channel. If you have a hard drive as master on the primary, then make the cdrom the master on the secondary.

Both windows and linux (madrake anyway) will allow booting from floppy to install with cd.

Also make sure that the cdrom is compatable with linux.
I have encountered 2 cdrw's that linux did not like so far.