Black screen after new harddrive

[ZealEmpire]

I just put a new hardrive in one of my computers now the computer turns on with a blank screen and a blinking cursor...keyboard doesnt even work...i have had it with this computer please help before i go nuts

[GX1_Man]

Let start with basics. Are the jumpers set correctly? Is this a second hard drive? If it is the only hard drive did you install an operating system? What kind of computer - make/model? What kind of hard drive - IDE or SATA?  Can you see it is the BIOS/Setup?

Details in the questions get details in the answers. What have you done? Have you any experience with installing hard drives?

[ZealEmpire]

eh lol im a complete noob the jumpers were wrong...it was set to be a slave instead of master

[GX1_Man]

glad to hear everything is OK now. Come back and visit anytime.

GX1_Man strikes again

[ZealEmpire]

oh what do you know yet another problem...i have gotton tot he point where im a running the software cd for the new hardrive however the software cd is only recognizing the old hardrive that is in the computer...why is this...

It says it sees my old drive installed as a primary slave

Why would it do this if that drive has been removed from my computer and a new one put in?

[GX1_Man]

It was formatted as a primary partition, rather than a logical drive in an extrended partition, perhaps.l

so are there now two drives in this machine, and how do you want them to end up?

[ZealEmpire]

No there is only the new drive in the machine...the old drive is a lousy 30 gig that is messed up...this new one is 80gig.  i have the 80 gig all hooked up just like the directions say and all this wizard can see is the old one thats laying on my bed...if thats not weird i dont know what is

[GX1_Man]

What wizard? If it was a blank hard drive what is on there? How does it register in the BIOS? Have you reinstalled WIndows on this drive? If so, what version.

[ZealEmpire]

I put the new harddrive in the computer i put the cdrom that came with the new harddrive in the computer...it brings me to a wizard that is supposed to setup the new hardrive to run with the computer.  the harddrive was just purchased from the store nothing has been done to it.

[GX1_Man]

I would forgo all of that and just use Windows to partition and format the drive, unless this is a VERY old machine that cannot see a drive this big. Again, what size drive shows in the BIOS. It is important that your computer is seeing it properly.  What computer make and model.

We're close to a solution.

[ZealEmpire]

The computer is fairly new its a Dell Dimension 2350 with a pentium 4 and it used to have win xp home on it...See whats strange is...

I have been looking at the diagnostic tools that are on the cdrom that came with this new harddrive...and it shows Motherboard Primary/Secondary IDE Controller...and right below that is my 80gig drive.   Unfortunatly the list i see this on is only a disc drive diagnostic program...

What do you think it means Motherboard Primary/Secondary IDE Controller?

[GX1_Man]

Primary controller is where hard drives should go, and secondary is for cD/DVD drives. It's best to keep it this way.

Since I now know you have a Dell, press F2 when the machine restarts and you will get to the BIOS screen. How big does it show the hard drive to be?

[ZealEmpire]

ok i see it...it does see the 80 gig drive  


and its set as the ide primary master

so when i try to boot fromt he newly installed harddrive i get stuck at that black screen with a blinking underscore...  _

When I get to this screen i have no functions...ctrl alt delete doesnt even work

[GX1_Man]

SInce you have a Dell, set the jumpers as cable select, none of that master slave stuff for the jumpers. THIS IS NOT AN OPTION! Make sure the hard drive is pluggged into the connector farthest from the motherboard on that flat IDE cable (it probably is) Boot the machine with the WIndows CD or the Dell recovery cD in the drive.

You shoulod be good to go. I expect no more problems. And do NOT use that software that came with the hard drive. No need for that stuff.

[ZealEmpire]

So basically take the jumper out of the drive...as for the ide its in the same spot as it always ways...and also dont the harddrives come with a copy of windows installed on them?  I know a western digital drive i got before did...