Can't Load Windows...Or Even Close

Hey everyone, I'm at a loss. Bought an HP a little over a year ago and the hard drive went bad 2 weeks after warranty. So, I decided to buy a new HD off new egg and start all over. Bought the hard drive, using my familie's XP install disk. The HP computer came with Vista 64.

Anyway, plugged in the new HD, put the windows disk in the dvd player and after the initial start up where it recognizes my HD and DVD player (it recognizes both in Bios too) it goes to a black screen with the following in white text at the top: "Setup is inspecting your computers hardware configuration." It stays there while the dvd rom spins and the light flashes then after 10 minutes nothing, the dvd stops spinning and it just stays there, forever.

Any thoughts? Am I missing a step? HP won't really help since its out of warranty etc.

You're installing Windows XP? Are these SATA hard drives? If so you'll need drivers for the SATA Disks - you have to use them by pressing a key (F6 IIRC) when the Windows installation asks if you have any drivers to load.

Edit: or alternatively, as godless said, set the drive mode to IDE in the BIOS to avoid the SATA driver requirement.

Can we back up a bit? How did you determine your initial problem was caused by a bad HD?

What were its symptoms?

I am concerned that you actually had a different problem and your HD was perhaps fine.

Also, please provide make and model of the HP.

okay my computer is an HP M8530f. I did online tech help with HP and they said it was bad. I started my computer up one day and got the "please restart with proper boot device or insert boot disk and press any key." So HP said it was bad.

I then went on vacation and came back AFTER warranty (i know not too smart) and it was out of warranty. I still have the old HD too.

I bought my new HD which is a Western Digital Caviar Blue WD1600AAJS 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive.

Of course since I bought an HP it actually doesn't come with your own copy of windows and they wouldn't send me just the boot disk so I tried using my parents copy of XP and I cant get past that initial screen I wrote about above.

Any thoughts would rock thanks! I don't know where in my bios to change from sata to ide?

You have the data cable and the power cable hooked up?

Well, you can try reseating the power and data cables, use a different data cable if you have one, and switching SATA ports (where the data cable plugs into the mobo).

But it may well be the original problem was not your HD ( or not *just* your HD), but also the disk controller (ie, mobo) as well.

Ideally, you first eliminate any possibility the new HD is bad.

Simplest way to do that is pop it into someone else's PC, and use it with the same data cable you are using now. If it doesn't work - and this is the BEST case - send it back.

If the new HD works there, and doesn't work in your HP, you're like 90+% sure you have a bad mobo. (But there remains a small possibility its the psu).

What you do if its a bad mobo is another problem . . . you are no longer under warranty to HP . . . you could try to buy a replacement mobo from them. If you do that, you could try reinstalling your old HD. Or buy a recovery disk from them in order to use your original OS on your new HD. You won't be able to use your family's OS on two machines.

If you decide to buy any other mobo as a replacement, there are potential compatibility issues and you will of course need to buy another copy of Windows. You won't be able to use your family's OS on two machines.

This isn't easy - diagnosis is often swap-and-try. Which is why there are folks who make a living fixing these things. They have parts to swap. You probably will, too, by the time all is done.