Blank screen after replacing hard drive w/XP boot disk in CD drive

I replaced the harddrive on my HP Pavilion DV1000 laptop. I have the original disks that came with the computer. I set bios to boot from cd. However when I turn the computer on with the xp cd in the optical drive, I just get a blank screen. I can here the cd drive start and stop. Any suggestions on what the problem may be?
 
Hi , Is the hard drive you have fitted brand new, nothing on it? Or does it have an OS on it from previous PC? In the BIOS does the new drive show in the list ? And are you using a genuine MS Windows disc, or the HP recovery disc, (as supplied with a new PC?).
 
Reply to blank screen after new harddrive

It is a new harddrive that I installed with nothing on it. I used the hp recovery disc (that was supplied with the pc when I purchased laptop) to try to boot from. There is a harddrive listed in Bios.
 
I would think the 'recovery disc' you are trying to boot from isn't a Windows system disc, it's a program HP supply to reset your XP OS back to factory, or 'as supplied' condition. Or to repair the original XP OS, if you run into problems, you can't sort out.
If you want to install XP onto your new Hard drive, you need a XP home (or Pro) disc. You can borrow one, but you must have a "product key' that you own, as the 'key' that is on the case of your PC is good, but only for the original, HP OEM version of XP.
(If you can borrow a disc of the right type, try it, you will only know if all ok when you 'activate' the system with MSoft).
Or, if your original hard drive is working, and you just needed more space, use your original as 'C' and put in the new one as 'D'. Otherwise, if your old HP hard drive failed, and the new one is to replace it, you will have to 'invest' in a new Windows 7 'Product key', plus you will get a new OS on disc. You also won't have the limitations of the OEM XP in the future either. Hope this makes sense.
 
I have an original Windows Millenium installation disk that I purchased some years ago. I thought I would try that just in the off chance that it would work. However, nothing happened. Just the same blank screen.

Is it just cause it is an old os or do you think there could be something wrong with the new harddrive?
 
If you have the Windows ME disc and a product key for it, you could try that, just to prove if the Hard disk works, but there will be several real problems. Microsoft don't support ME any more, so that it will produce many errors, also I believe Win ME didn't work with hard drives over about 130GB. It would work, to an extent, but does not compare to Vista or 7. You can use XP home or Pro for several more years, it's fine. If you can see the BIOS screen when you boot the PC,(press F2) and you can see the name and type of the new hard drive listed, make it second in the list, and make the CD/DVD first. The disc you need to install XP from must be an operating system disc, rather than a recovery disc, it's not the same thing. You also need to have a 'product key', which can be keyed in, part way through installation. The bad news is that, unless you bought your Windows XP disc from a retailer, (on-line or shop), it won't work for more than 30 days, or to the point where you try to activate it. Your choices are, 1, to install XP every 30 days, or 2, Buy a new Windows 7 O.S, with new product key, which will be good for the next 5 years. I hope this makes sense !
 
SO... What does your bios "see"?
If it cannot see the drive, then...

Try unplugging the hard drive; Can you boot from the windows cd then?
If not... Are you absolutely sure you did not allow a static discharge while doing the change?

If bios does not detect it, and you are able to boot with it disconnected...
I would guess one of three things, either
1. A problem with the drive itself.
2. Your computer is PATA/IDE not SATA, and it came with an 80gb drive. If your new drive is larger than about 120gb, you may not be able to use the full drive without partitioning).
3. (In most cases this would not be possible, but may be worth checking) Did the ribbon get connnected improperly? (Make sure that you have pin one on the ribbon, to pin one on the drive connector)

Just as an example... some older systems will not handle the larger drives that are now made.
My 5 year old Gateway has an upper limit of a 140gb on the hard-drive.
No Bios update available for it.

Though Fat32 supports drives up to 2 Terabytes...
Microsoft Win2k only supports FAT32 partitions up to a size of 32 GB.
in Windows ME, the maximum disk size for (parallel) ATA disks is 128 GiB

In some cases, it may be able to partition the larger drives into smaller "logical drives" in order to stay under the bios (and OS) limitations, but I am not sure that will always be true.

In this case... it seems odd that your bios would not handle the drive at all...
I would expect it to just "see" a smaller drive than is there...

Reinstalling OEM on a larger drive...
Oh... With my Gateway, I was able to upgrade to a larger drive, and reinstall using the OEM product supplied by Gateway.
BUT, I do not see a drive change as a major impediment to re-installation, in most cases.
YMMV.
 
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