I have formatted the HDD with included software and rebooted with the Windows 2000 install CD (setting the CD as the 1st boot device as the hard drive instructions directed). When I do this, I get "Setup is inspecting your computer's hardware configuration." and then it just freezes there.

I have disabled onboard soundcard, modem, nic, etc. to see if it may be a IRQ conflict. The system was working fine when my original HDD failed.

I have read that a common fix for this problem is to disable removable drives as bootable, however, my bios does not have such an option at all.

To recap, I had a perfectly good, working system, the hard drive failed, I installed a new hard drive and now I can't install Windows on it.

Anyone run across this problem before?

Try removing all the extra drives and hardware, not just disabling them in the bios. Also try a Win ME or 2000, or BartPE disk and boot off of it.
Delete the current partition, create a new partition and do a full format. The run chkdsk /r hopefully that will take care of the issue. Then boot off of the Win 2000 cd and install Windows. Don't forget to pray!!:wave: