XP install probs

I am trying to install xp on a hp 420 pavillion
I fitted a new hard drive now every time it boots a blue screen with a large hp logo appears for a couple of seconds then its replaced by a black screen which says
operating system cannot be found and stays there it is not detecting the XP cd in the drive and there are no on screen options to boot from cd or enter the bios nothing except the two screens i mentioned above the cd drive appears to be working (it powers up when a cd is put in) the cd is also ok I tested it on as old drive I put in my comp and it installed ok so its not a corrupt or copied cd.
The computer is my cousins wife's machine
and the original hd had 14 different viruses,trojans and worms including blaster
with over 150 files infected (she likes screensavers and chat rooms) could there still be remnants somewhere? I thought changing the hard drive would remove all traces of the nasties or can they get in the motherboard as well?

 

try using the F1 key to get into the bios as soon as the computer is turned on. then set up the boot options to boot from cd instead of harddrive. once the install is done you will need to change back to boot from hdd

 

ctrl+alt+esc gets you into the bios I have set to boot from cd (I think)

 

WOW thats a strange combination

 

Howie, why didn't you just reformat her old drive and install XP there? Recommend getting her a good virus program that automatically gets its updates. I have used Norton for several years and it really has done a great job. No virus infecting my computer and I sure have been getting a lot sent to me on my old ISP email address.

The best help I got when I started to have problems is do a clean install which means 1 CDROM, 1 HDD, 1 video card unless you have on board video, 1 floppy, no modem, lan or other add ons. I read one install thread that the guy put a formatted but empty floppy in and when he got the message that there was no OS he pressed a key and it went to the bootable XP install disk. My bios allows me to set the cd as the first boot drive so didn't have to try it out.

Good luck on your noble deed. Let us know how it comes out.

 

still can't install.
in the bios menu there is no primary listed it recognises the cd drive and the floppy but no primary? the hd (primary) and the CD drive (secondry) share a tandem ide cable, i have tried swapping the connections around and the power lead and the results are the same primary listed as none secondry the cd the hd has the jumpers set to master.
with the the installation cd I can select, format and partition the drive i want to install on( so the XP cd can see the hd) it gets as far as the reboot after copying the files for install then goes to the black screen saying
"operating system cannot be found"
and there is still none next to primary in bios
anyone got any ideas

 

failsafe..

use a win98 boot disk. Load up FDISK and make sure the primary partition is set to ACTIVE.

 

I found the 98se bootdisk and tried fdisk
it told me
"no fixed disks present"

in the bios

"primary master [none]

there must be a way to make the machine recognise / find the hard drive where no O.S.
is installed?
can anyone help? I have been at this for 14 hours now and am about to take an axe to it

 

done it, in the bios where it was saying
"primary master" [none]

[none] was an option not a statement i changed it to auto set the first boot to cd

and it found the hd and installed XP no probs, so I've put the axe away and am installing av and fw for her
Thanx for everyones help

 

Just want to clarify... FDISK WILL see an NTFS drive..