[exnavyemo]

My Dad is trying to replace his hard drive in his 4 yo HP Pavilion A706N and cannot get the formatting CD to run. He has been having blue screen of death problems with his old hard drive. He is replacing the original drive with a WD 320G drive. WD help desk is all Paki and since my dad is hard of hearing he can't decipher what they are telling him. He has gotten into the BIOS and changed the drive boot sequence to the DVD/CD player first but that hasn't helped. Thanks in advance for any assistance from this august group!

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Hello welcome to GeeksToGo, I will be happy to help you.

I will need some more information. What exactly are you trying to do install windows to the new drive?
Are you using a genuine microsoft windows cd or a system disc that came with the system when it was bought?
I will await your reply and then hopefully be able to come up with a solution for you.

[rshaffer61]

Hello welcome to GeeksToGo, I will be happy to help you.

I will need some more information. What exactly are you trying to do install windows to the new drive?
Are you using a genuine microsoft windows cd or a system disc that came with the system when it was bought?
I will await your reply and then hopefully be able to come up with a solution for you.

[exnavyemo]

From what I understand he is trying to first format the new drive, but he gets to a certain point with the formatting and the process stops.

[rshaffer61]

Is it giving you a error message?
Try it again and include message in your next reply
Also is the hd a IDE or SATA drive that he bought?

[exnavyemo]

Rather than do this second-hand I'm going to have him join and reply. He's in NY and I'm in VA.

[rshaffer61]

OK not a problem. Always better to have the OP who's system i am helping with to talk to.

[kiltie]

Hi, I'm the guy trying to get the new hdd going.I have a WD 320G eide drive. sucessfully installed as indicated by the BIOS showing it is there.The disk which came with the drive is kind of a mystery as to what it is supposed to do. However even after modifying the boot sequence to put the cd drive first the only response to the WD disk is a black screen with a blinking dash. I do not have an XP disk as the system was preloaded when purchased. I did however make Recovery disks on my Cd burner. When the first of the recovery disks was inserted, the machine recognized it after I followed the prompts. However the disk started to do a drive partition, and got part way thru when it said wait. I waited 40 min and more than an hour on two occasions but nothing happens.WD techs have been little help to me thus far. That's my story!

[rshaffer61]

Ok so you have no original installation cd if I'm reading you correctly?
Do you have a registration number for the xp home edition that was originally installed on the hp?

Edited by rshaffer61, 31 March 2009 - 04:49 PM.

[kiltie]

Yes it is on the side of the case. At this point I can't locate a disk of XP among my friends or I would put that in

[rshaffer61]

That is going to be important that we have. Once you can obtain that then we can proceed. I believe the problem you are having is due to the recovery disk being proprietary to the system. In other words it holds all the info for that particular system, drivers, software, hd size and partition (s) sizes. When replacing with a larger hd then the disc doesn't understand the size anymore. When you get a disc make sure it is the same type of Xp as what you had, Home or Pro. Your key code on the side of the system will work then.
If you cannot borrow a Xp disc then you would have to buy a genuine Microsoft Win Xp Home Edition.
The only other option would be if the original hd is working and is stable enough we could install HDclone on it and clone the original drive over to the new drive. I will warn you that I have never had any luck in doing that due to the difference in drive sizes as I stated above.
Please let me know how you would like to proceed

[kiltie]

I'm planning to go with an Xp disk for now. I hope it is as easy as loading the cd and following the prompts. My external backup may be handy in filling out what I want on the system.

[rshaffer61]

On a fresh install it should be really easy for you.
FYI when xp asks to setup Network
say yes as this will assure your system will be able to get on the internet when it is done.
After it is done make sure you get all the updates from microsoft and any updates need for the Hp itself.
Good luck and please post back if there are any problems or if you get it all running.
I will be glad to help with any problems.