RH Linux 5.2 will not boot

I'll take help from anybody right now.

Have tried to install RH Linux 5.2 on a PII 266. Appears to install
fine but will not boot from the HD or a floppy. I keep getting a
bios message that no ***active*** partition was found on the HDD. I
suspect it has something to do with the hd I'm using. It's a WD
Caviar 31600, 1624.6 MB, 3148 cyls, 16 heads,63 spt. I highly suspect
a problem with cylinders greater than 1023, but am not sure. I really
don't want to go to a dual boot system unless I can help it. I do
have a copy of System Commander to manage a dual boot system but I
really don't want to resort to this. Does anyone know a solution or
work around to this problem? Linux fdisk shows 4 partitions all
starting with /tmp.

Thanks,

Donald Brock