New drive iinstalled but does not boot after windows system restore

Dell 2305 Inspiron 4GB - by way of explanation, I installed a Seagate drive to replace failed drive. I ran the system restore disks and everything was moving along. all of a sudden it went to cmd window with "unable to locate a valid partition to mount drive" or words to that effect.  The windows seven forum says that the new drive is fine but is looking for a partition that may have been on the old drive - which I guess got copied onto the system restore disks. Can anyone help me with this? I would appreciate it as it looks like everything was moving along until I reached this point. Almost to the end of all programs etc being installed, Thanks.