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I just bought a new hard drive because my old one crapped out. I installed it in the computer and put the windows cd that came with the computer from alienware in the disk drive. when i turn the computer on i get a blank screen, it doesnt even look as though it is on. Anyone out there mind walking me through installing the new hard drive? Ive never done a new hard drive before...thanks
OK, if this computer came with Windows pre-installed you most likely have a special partition on the original harddrive that contains all of the restoration files. I am not positive about what alienware gave you with that CD. Try Exploring that CD in a differecnt working computer and post back what is on it.
What is the issue with the original harddrive?
When you turn on the computer you should get some screens at startup (POST). These screens should appear even without ANY drives connected. If you don't get any video then you may have disturbed something inside the case. Does this computer have a dedicated graphics card in it? If so, you may have dislodged it.
Once you work thru that issue and check the CD as suggested then we can help you move along further. I will state that the normal method to restore your system requires that YOU burn a CD when you first get the computer. Hopefully alienware goes further than that.
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What type of HDD...PATA (IDE) or SATA? If it's PATA, you have to set the jumper on the rear of the drive. I'm sure an instruction sheet came with the drive explaining exactly what to do?
Another possibility is that your old HDD didn't "crap out" & something else is wrong.
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ok so i got the screen on...the RAM needed to be reset. Si i boot up and the system goes through its setup, i follow the on screen instructions until i get to installing windoes, but in each of the four placed i would select to install, it says there is no disk...i hit enter and get the blue screen of death. I had a RAID setup before, but now i just have a regular setup.
New Hard drive: 120 GB IDE
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If you have more than one cdrom device, try the second one. I've noticed sometimes restore disks are fussy about which drive you use.
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i had a RAID setup before, and i went into Bios to change RAID from "enabled" to "disabled" but alienware said that option should be changed to "ATA" and now Bios wont even load up. Please help this sux
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Doesn't seem like that should affect the bios. There's probably a CLEAR CMOS jumper on the motherboard. Jump it, turn on the PC for a second or two, turn it off and put the jumper back in the standby position. That will reset the cmos to its default settings.
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