I just bought a new hard drive from a wholesale place and it dosent come with any instructions. I want to install it and I know how to physically do it but I dont know how to do it software wise. I dont want to keep my old hard drive and just want to start new with the new one. What do I need as far as software? Just windows XP?

Any label on it showing who made the harddrive ?? The manufacturers website should have instructions to download or view.

You'll need the OS CD. Make sure the computer is turned off. Power cord unplugged. Then install the drive. Turn the computer on and then goto the BIOS by using F2 or whatever key combo your computer asks for. Open the CDROM and install the OS Disc. Then in bootup sequence select CDROM as #1. Then pres F10 to save and exit. PC should reboot and ask you if you want to boot from CDROM. Click yes. Then go through the step by step process of formatting the drive to NTFS and creating the partition you want to load the OS on. Windows should take care of the rest... Just follow the on screen prompts. Any software you want on the drive you will have to download and install again... Cheers!

I believe I would simply clone the HDD. http://www.sharewarejunkies.com/02zwd11/casper_xp.htm

You can do this from within Windows XP once you have physically installed the disk and set the BIOS options. Go to my website (Homepage link) and look up the section titled: Windows XP Professional - Disk Management This contains a mini howto do what you are asking. Hope it helps. ___________________________________________ ☺ When everything else fails, read the instructions.

Sory I did not fully read your question. I thought you were adding an additional drive. Charles Hunstiger has essentially detailed what you need to do. Just one thing if you keep your old hard drive connected then you may get a dual boot option with XP loaded on two hard drives. To avoid this make sure that you physically disconnect the old drive. birdlegs suggestion of cloning your old drive to the new drive is valid only if you want to keep your old OS and Data. Remember if you do a new install then you will need to transfer over your data (if you wish to keep that) from the old drive. In particular your bookmarks, e-mail accounts, MP3, pictures, app downloads, plus any other personal data. ___________________________________________ ☺ When everything else fails, read the instructions.

Set the drive to "master" by moving the pin as pictured on the hard drive. the bios should recognise the new drive. The computer would normally boot to the cdrom by default. If not do as Charles Hunstiger said. Why not keep your old drive for backing up? Format it and make it a slave (by again moving the little pin).