Can't load windows XP on new hard drive

Double check the boot order in the BIOS Setup. It's just possible that it has been set to only boot from the optical drive and never the hard drive.

I tried to remove the jumper and its still not working. I will check the boot order next but I highly doubt that is it since it worked perfect before the hard drive change....who knows though, at this point I will try every suggestion.

Did you try getting the CD out of the CD drive before it rebooted. That's all it took when it happened to me. (Assuming you are set to boot from the HDD next in the boot order.)

Yes I did take the CD out of the drive after it loaded and before it rebooted. I do have to check the drive order though in the Bios.

Ok well I just checked the boot order and it says
Floppy Drive
HDD-NONE
So its not seeing a hard drive, maybe the IDE cable is bad? I hope the MB isn't the problem.

Those ribbons are easy to damage. Try another one.

tried the new ribbon cable, still the same.

Raydee,
I know that I had run into this problem once before but I can't remember for sure what I did to fix it. My doctors have me on a bunch of medications that screw with my memory, so please forgive me! I'll keep thinking about it and hopefully it will come to me.

Do you have more than 1 IDE Bus on your motherboard? If so try putting the Hard Drive onto IDE 2 instead of IDE 1. I'm thinking it was my brothers computer and it only had 1 IDE so we had to buy an IDE Card to fix the problem.

Thanks for the jolt.

Go into the BIOS and make sure both IDE channels are enabled. Some bios do list them in combination or separately.

If I'm looking at the right Pavillion 500 it looks like your Pavillion does have a Secondary IDE. As Train stated above, Go into the BIOS to make sure Both IDE are Enabled! Then use the Secondary IDE cable to set up your computer. I'm not sure if this will take care of the problem but we're running out of things to try.

Slave it to the cdrom.
But maybe, I have had it happen to me several times, the hdd is bad right out of the package.

If the hard drive and CD-ROM drive are both on the same ribbon cable, and you are using a Master/Slave setup, (versus Cable Select), the hard drive should be jumpered as Master and the CD-ROM drive as Slave.

A few questions:

1. What model number is the new Western Digital Hard Drive?
   
   
2. Are you trying to use an 80-wire or 40-wire ribbon cable? (Both have 40-pin connectors).
   
   
3. Is the ribbon cable 'known-good', (tested and proven to work in a working system), or new?
   
   
4. Are both the Hard Drive and CD-ROM Drive connected to the same ribbon cable?
   
   
5. How do you have the Hard Drive jumpered, (Master, Slave or Cable Select)?
   
   
6. How do you have the CD-ROM Drive jumpered, (Master, Slave or Cable Select)?
   
   
7. If both drives are connected to the same ribbon cable, which drive is plugged in to the end/last connector, (furthest away from the motherboard connector)?
   
   
8. Are all the connectors on the ribbon-cable keyed, (where they can only be plugged in one way)?
   
   
9. Does the ribbon cable have a different color wire (usually red or blue stripe) along one edge?

Or if you have another PC to hand, slave the drive in that, just to eliminate the drive itself having died.