Replaced Hard Drive XP wont install????

Question

The hard drive i got with the computer im pretty sure completely fried (when booting, it got past the first dell screen then went to a black screen with the white line blinking in the top left corner). So, i replaced the hard drive with a slightly larger hitachi (the original was a hitachi) so that seemed to have worked. When i boot the computer, now it comes to the second screen but says 'No bootable devices--strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility'. I downloaded Windows XP from my colleges website and burned it to a CD to boot with. It didnt work, so we unzipped it and then retried it as unzipped, still didnt work. We even wrote XP to a flash drive (which is an option on the boot menu) and it still didnt work. We went into the setup and made sure that the CD Drive and Removable Hard Drive were the first 2 and only 2 options for the computer to boot off of. I keep hitting F1 while the computer is trying to read the disc and all i keep getting is the same message 'No bootable devices...'. Is there something im missing here? Do i need to get a recovery disc from dell (didnt get one to begin with). Is there something i need to do to the XP files THEN burn them again to attempt to reinstall? Is all hope lost? lol   This is probably fairly simple to fix, i just have no clue. Thanks in advance!!

ejn63 · Answer

It sounds like you need the correct XP CD. What type of file did you download from the website?

boppo · Answer

i think it might be simple. you need to take off the blade connector from the old drive that covers the pins and put it over the pins on the new drive. that will make your new drive readable.

supertex05 · Answer

Working with an Inspiron 2200. I think the BIOS sees the hard drive because i can run the diagnostic in the boot options and all sections pass, so im pretty sure its not the drive, could be wrong. The drive i bought for it looks exactly like the one that was in it, its just 20 GB bigger, so i just slapped it in there. Is there something i need to do to the drive?

boppo · Answer

ejn63, i am getting slow in my old age. he he

ejn63 · Answer

What model system is it? Does the BIOS see the hard drive? When you installed the new drive, if it is EIDE, did you remove the blade adapter from the original drive and mount it over the pins on the new one?

supertex05 · Answer

The file downloaded from the website is the Windows XP SP2 zip file. When unzipped it opens the folder that has the executable files, setup, etc. We burned all of what was unzipped to the disc in hopes that would work.

ejn63 · Answer

Service Pack 2 is not XP - it is the service pack. And unless you took steps to make a bootable USB key and used a full XP disc, that won't work, either - call Dell and order the XP CD.

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