windows won't install on my new hard drive

Did you hit F6 to install the Sata driver from floppy when requested? Try checking options for SATA controller. Some boards set SATA to pretend to be PATA, which solves problem.

What service pack of Windows XP are you trying to install? Plain vanilla XP has trouble with drives over 137 GB, you need service pack 2 to use larger drives. If your Windows XP does not have SP2, google "slipstream windows xp" and you'll solve your problem.

another thing to consider...

If you are borderline on using your powersupplies full capacity then adding devices will definitely cause hanging and sudden reboot problems.

what kind of psu are you using?

Only have one drive connected when installing XP.

Always use a install Disc with the latest service pack, in this case SP2. (search for slip streaming)

Check to see if you need to press F6 and load controller drivers from a floppy during install. (Alternately add the drivers to the CD with nLite ).

Make sure your controller is configured properly. Sometime there is a RAID/IDE mode setting in the BIOS, sometimes you need to instead add any non-RAID drives to a one disc array, often you need to do nothing at all.

Use Nero CD/DVD speed tool to graph the CD transfer rate, that will tell you if there is a problem reading data from the CD.

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Beyond that sometimes re installs fail because the system is no longer stable. Memtest86, Prime95 are good tests to run.

Also I am assuming that at some point you fully tested the drive with the manufacturers diagnostic utility. Its extremely rare for a factory to ship a bad drive, but who knows how many time it got knocked around during shipping.

You might want to try removing the power to the other drive. To avoid setup conflicts.

Did you use Disc Wizard 2003 (Seagate) to partition and format the new drive?
http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/howto/sata_insta...

Disc Wizard 2003.
http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/drivers/discwiz.htm...

Here are some other things to consider.
Attach four-pin case speaker
Do not forget to connect the 4-pin ATX +12 V power plug
Connect SATA power cable

You could Clear CMOS.

Tweak the BIOS (refer to MOBO manual).
Set the boot order, Floppy First, CD-ROM Second, SATA DRIVE Third.
Enable SATA, Set Silicon Image Mode to SATA2, disable quick boot,

Install the latest BIOS Update. (Improved SATA capabilities?)

ASUS Top of the Line Web Support
http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguag...

ASUS Motherboard General Troubleshooting
http://support.asus.com/troubleshooting/troubleshooting...

ASUS advanced trouble-shooting.
http://support.asus.com/troubleshooting/troubleshooting...

Your Manual, (Awesome Board!)
ftp://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8N32-SLI%...

well the screen just goes blank after "setup is inspecting hardware configuration" appears, and stays that way. It never prompted me to press F6 or anything.

I am trying to install winxp sp2, so limited capacity aint a problem.

my PSU is Antec's True Power Trio 650 Watt, which should have enough juice to support this HDD.

I used windows disk utility (booted from old HDD) to partition and format this drive.

thanks for the replies, I would definitely check my drive with a diagnostic utility.

also another thing...my drive often producing a cluttering sound, often when under load. I am used to these kinda sounds from Seagate, yet thought Seagate might have fixed these problems. WD is as quiet as it gets!

Seagates usually can be set to quiet mode which should decrease the "seek noise" at the cost of performance.

In general you can't assume brand x is quieter than brand y, you have to acutally look up and compare test results.

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There should also be a jumper setting to reduce the interface speed to 1.5 Gbps which will have zero impact on performance but improves compatiblity with some motherboards.

Definately test the readablility of the CD. Lens's get dirty, CDs get scratched. A disc that plays fine on one PC will yeild error in another.

You might want to run memtest86 and prime 95 as well just to make sure you are not having any general system stability problems.

You may also want to disconnect as many of those irrelevant devices as posible when attempting an install. I have a IDE to USB 2.0 adapter that keeps my system from booting if I leave it connected with no drive attached.

Doesn't do any harm in Windows XP, but completely halts the boot process.

Basically anything connected to the PC can cause problems so the less devices connected/enabled the better.

PS its very bad to connect both the "regular" and SATA power cables, which you probably guessed, but is still worth mentioning as some people will try crazy things when troubleshooting.

yeah you are right about the brands Codesmith  
I ran the drive self test from seagate, and my drive failed it!!
so I have sent it back..hopefully would get a new one soon.
thanks alot for your replies

I always run a full diagnostic on all new drives. You never know how many times they were dropped after leaving the factory.

Same with memtest86 and memory.

I buy good brands from reliable retailers so I rarely encounter a problems, but its still worth doing.

Bad memory and bad hard drive can slowly and sliently knock holes in your files. So I always test em just in case.