HDD not reconized in Laptop

[pooppnjack]

With Dell Laptop Inspiron 1150, I boot up, DELL scrolls across the screen and it tells me that is missing a file to start windows. I ran test and MY HD has a problem they’re fore a purchased an exact replacement.
With this replacement new HD (I put the adopter for Dell on) the computer will turn on, fan runs but no Dell appears on the screen.
If I take the new HD out, start the computer, Dell again appears on the screen, the computer boots to the point it tells me there is no HD.
How can I get the Dell Laptop Computer to recognize my new hard drive?

 

[AntiZig]

you need to
0. make sure hard drive is installed properly and has data and power cables connected correctly
1. format the hard drive
2. install an OS on it

after all that it done you'll be able to observe a normal boot sequence

 

[pooppnjack]

This is a laptop, I pluged the adopter from Dell on to the HDD and it seated in the Laptop properly. There is nothing else I can do.

 

[AntiZig]

ok, so put the cd that came with the laptop into your cd-rom, run windows installation, it should format the drive then install windows on it

 

[pooppnjack]

Thanks I will try that

 

[Alaskan_IT]

I looked up the specs for that laptop and it says the original HDD size was 30 GB (IDE), is this correct? My assumption is that you are putting a much larger HDD in, such as 320gb, and the motherboard can't recognize one of that size. From what I can gather from researching online, the max hard drive size seems to be 120gb. There is a BIOS update available that may allow a larger hard drive to be installed, but I am unable to find out what it actually updates.

 

[pooppnjack]

There was a Hirtachi Travelstar 40 gig Hdd installed, and I got an exact replacement

 

[Alaskan_IT]

Well....there goes that theory. Even if the HDD isn't formatted properly, you should still see a DELL splash screen, as you normally would. I suspect that your new HDD is defective.

 

[pooppnjack]

I agree, I'm sending it back. Thanks for all the help.

 

[marbski]

even without a HDD a dell splash screen will appear... so check the motherboard....