i got the computer in 2005 & the xp disk is in good condition the only thing connected to the cable is another drive

Okay, disconnect the old 6GB drive and pretend it's not there for the duration of the install or remove it all together if you need the room to install the new drive.

Take the 60GB (new) drive and make sure you set it to "Master" and also be sure to plug the drive into the socket furthest away from the motherboard on the ribbon cable. Also make sure you plug the power cable back into your 60GB (new) drive, and restart your computer.

When the computer begins to POST (turn on) you will need to see if your motherboard has detected the new drive. To do this you'll need to make sure the "COMPAQ" screen turns off as your motherboard POSTs. The COMPAQ screen will cover the motherboards POST messages if you don't make sure it goes away. You will have to take a good hard look at the information contained on the screen to see how to make the COMPAQ screen turn off. Tapping the Esc key will often allow you to see the motherboard POST.

You should also find out what key or key conbination will allow you to get into your computers BIOS.

Please tell me what you see on the POST screen.

when i do that it detects the new drive but the new drive wont read my xp disk or it will read it to the point of " press enter to begin set up" when enter it says that it cant read disk or disk is invalid. but when i run xp on my old drive the disk runs just fine.

What key do you have to push to get into your BIOS?

F10 and it boots from CD by F8

With the 'old' drive in, Download and run Everest Home (it is free):

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html

Once you download it, click on it and let it install and then run it from the icon on your desktop. Click on file, preferences, report and uncheck the 'include debug information in the report' box. People rarely want to see that stuff.

Click on the + sign beside 'Computer', then on 'Summary', then go to the VERY Top of the screen and click on 'report'.

Note: the 'Very Top' isn't one line down, it means what it says.

Cursor over 'quick report-summary' and then click on 'plain text' and then click on 'save to file' and change the 'save in' folder to 'Desktop' and then click 'Save'.

Clear all your open windows and on the Desktop click on that 'report.txt' icon - this will open it in a text editor (probably Notepad) and then copy and paste it to here.

Also, give the specifics of your 'new' drive.

Read the above carefully, take your time.

Thanks every one for your help