Friendsourcing: Computer Tech assistance?

[alee_grrl]

Question for my computer savvy friends: Old laptop (hp dv9000 series). Wouldn't boot (lights would flash and then nothing). Determined it was the hard drive when dad put hard drive in another computer and it did the same thing. Replaced hard drive, and went to install Windows on it, but installer is detecting hard drive. Checked bios, bios is not detecting new hard drive.

One problem may be that the drive is bigger than the original specs allowed. I've read that I can do a dynamic drive overlay, but am having some difficulty figuring that one out.

I'm not at all sure what to do next. Any ideas on where to look for a solution would be appreciated.

Comments

Turns out it was operator error

[alee_grrl]

I figured it out what was wrong--the dv9000 series requires a connector piece for the hard drive, which was thankfully present on the now defunct original hard drive that I removed. I just didn't realize that it was a part that could be removed and placed on a new drive until I looked at getting an addition hard drive caddy kit since there are actually places for two drives on the dv9000 series. When I saw the kit with the connector piece I made the *ahem* connection (please pardon the bad pun). Tried installing the new hard drive with the connector piece and it worked just fine. Am now in the process of installing Windows 7 and updating the computer. ::fingers crossed that there are no more issues::

On the other hand, I've learned a lot about computer hardware and let my inner tech geek out to play a bit. Once I got beyond the fear of screwing up by realizing I couldn't make it any worse than it already was, it wasn't so frustrating.