problem installing software to new hard drive

Question

I have an Inspiron 600m, the original hard drive died. I'm trying to install XP to the new hard drive, but when I put the cd in the dvd/cd drive and boot up the machine, the bios runs then I just get a black screen with a blinking cursor.  I can't even get to a dos prompt on the new hard drive. What could be the problem?

Skybird · Answer

The hard drive is blank because it is new.  The system needs to bootfrom the Windows XP disk.  The XP disk will allow you to partition and format the hard drive.

marilynr61 · Answer

Yes, I have changed the boot order and I still get nothing but a blank screen. The hard drive doesn't even come up with a prompt of any kind.

Skybird · Answer

Did you change the boot order in the Set-up (BIOS)?  Enter the Set-up and set the boot device to the CD Drive.

marilynr61 · Answer

I am booting from an XP disk and still all I get is a blank screen.

cleftrock · Answer

You are getting a blinking cursor because it is trying to boot from the unformatted hard drive. I know, I had interrupted the xp install process when I realized I was using the xp disk for my desktop instead of the laptop. When I rebooted and entered into the F12 boot menu, the bios preferrences changed to boot on hard drive first. I selected boot from cd/dvd and voila...the xp load process started again.

marilynr61 · Answer

thanks for the advice, but that's also something I've already tried and it still doesn't work.

cleftrock · Answer

Try removing both the hard drive and the cd and restart the computer. You should get an error message that says no bootable device found and the option of going into F2 bios or F12. Once you ascertain that your bios is working properly (check to make sure cd rom device is recognized by bios), reinsert the xp install disk into the cd rom and attempt to boot off of it (restarting leaving the hard drive removed). This should 'force' the computer to look to the cd while it boots. Let us know if xp install comes up this way with the hard drive removed.

marilynr61 · Answer

Ok, now that's an option I have not yet tried! Thanks! I'll let you know if it works!

Storage, Drives & Media

problem installing software to new hard drive

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