please help with harddrive

I recently crashed my hard drive on my laptop it is a compaq armada m700.
I am not an expert when it comes to computers but i am at the point i figure it is wortha shot trying to install a new one if i totally screw it up I guess i will just have to buy a new computer. i have found computer to not really be that complicated when it comes to installing this of this nature but i dont understand what needs to be done once the hd is actually in the computer.
If anyone can give me some steps i need to take it would be greatly appreciated.
I know the os needs to be reinstalled and the drivers I also know i can download the driver from compaq.com but the question is in what order and do i install all the drivers seperatly? Thanks in advance.
Krystal

 

Generally I install in this order

Operating System
Chipset drivers
Operating system updates
video driver
directx
sound driver
ethernet driver
modem driver
then if all works well go to windows and do an update

There may be some additional drivers I missed depending on manufacturer
Some manufacturers have specific order for reinstalling so you may want to check Compaq website first. Get all your drivers together before you start also.

 

Pretty much the same with me except that I install DX prior to the VGA driver

 

So I should go to the compaq web site and download the drivers and put them ona disk then install on my laptop? Will this be in dos or windows?