? about replacing an erased hard drive

[lawson511]

Hi,
 I had a 19.1 GB Gateway Desktop w/ WIN ME installed on it. I tried to install XP on it, not knowing that I needed a bigger hard drive, and (making a long story short) ended up erasing my hard drive. I bought a new computer and gave the Gateway to my cousin and now I'm trying to help her w/ fixing it.  :-? (and I don't know tooo much about the hardware side of computers lol)

  I was just wanting to know, could she replace the old, erased hard drive with a new Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 80 GB Internal Hard Drive and then install Windows XP on the computer? Would we need anything else (like a boot disk) in order to install the hard drive? Sorry if these questions sound dumb but I'm clueless when it comes to actually programming the computer lol.

As far as we know, the hard drive is erased. When you turn the computer on, the Gateway screen comes up and then it goes to a DOS screen (and I know nothing about DOS!!) I know I can physically replace the hard drive, I won't know what to do if a DOS screen comes up lol.

Anyway..... *hopefully I don't come off as a complete idiot* lol Any help at all is appriciated! Thanks in advance!

~ Kimmy

[patio]

The new hard drive will be no problem at all. No drivers needed to install it. You do however have to format it so after you have installed it in the machine boot up with the Western Digital cd in and run the disk prep tools.

As to XP you might want to hold off on that since it was an ME machine and the hardware requirements might be a bit slim.

Try and go for Win2K it's stable and basically XP without all the eye candy...

patio.  8-)

p.s. You can remove the old HDD for now until you are up and running...You can then add it on as a slave drive and use it for extra storage.

Remember to set the jumper on the WD new drive at master and hook it to the end of the flat ribbon cable on IDE1

p.s.s.  The power connector (4 pin is flat on one side) flat side towards the bottom of the drive. The ribbon cable can onlu go in one way as well there is a stub in the center that goes towards the top of the drive. Take your time pay attention and don't force anything and you should be runnin in no time...

[homer]

if you would like to format and install windows to a new hard drive (as well as reformat and reinstall windows to an old hard drive) just follow these steps.

1. enter computers BIOS ( enter by tapping the button specified on your screen. it should say something along the lines of "hit __ to enter BIOS" or "hit __ to enter setup.") almost every make is different.
2. while in the BIOS, select something along the lines of "boot order" or "boot prioity." (again almost every make is different)
3. make your cd drive boot first. (by setting it in the first slot)
4. save settings and quit (comp should restart)
5. your comp will now boot off of the windows cd
6. follow the onscreen instructions that the windows cd supplies

and remember, format means it erases EVERYTHING!

if any of this is confusing, tell me where i lost you and a will clarify.

[Fed]

19 GBs is more than enough for XP or W2K (Preferred )

[Raptor]

If you have erased the entire 19GB's and it still complains you need to run HDD diagnostic tools on the HDD as it might be failing..

[Fed]

You may be trying to install it on a smaller partition too.