Problems loading OS software after replacing hard drive in Compaq Presario 2100

I replaced the hard drive in my Compaq Presario 2100 and put in the CD to restore the operating system. It ask for the languange, then I hit next to get to the screen that tells me all my data will be lost and click on that. It looks like it is going to the next screen but it goes from the restore screen to a black one and two words come up 'Eject Disk'. I tried this from a cold start as well (with the CD in the drive) and it did not work. The manual indicates that all I need to do is install the drive and use the software. Can someone help ? Thanks !

 

This may sound dumb, I think HP gives you a restore CD so you'd have to install XP not restore it because there is nothing on the drive to start.

 

The CD's that I am using are the restore CD's that came with the laptop - no software came with the drive. Do I need to buy Windows XP ? What do i need to do ?

 

Umm yea, you are not restoring persay. Rather reinstalling the OS, so by it telling you "you will loose all data" that means its formatting the harddrive. Don't worry about it, just follow the steps... The word "restore" is basically a dumb way of saying installation disk.
You have to reinstall XP on this drive, there is no way around it. The drive shouldn't come with anything, you don't need anything but hte XP install disk.

So let it formatt it (NTFS), and walk your self through the install process. You won't mess anything up... Nor do you need to buy anything!

 

Usually HP gives you an OEM Windows CD and a drivers/apps CD or so I thought.

 

The only discs that came with my laptop are called 'Compaq QuickRestore System Recovery CD Microsoft Windows XP Home SP1'

 

I had been folowing the steps and it keeps coming up with the black screen 'Eject Disc' and the Cd pops out and the laptop restarts again. Why is that ?

 

I found out what was wrong. I hit 'F2' to go into setup and it could not find the new hard drive so I took it out and compared it with the old one that I just took out. Seems like there is this small black adaptor (for lack of a better term) on the back of the old hard drive that is placed over the pins on the pack of the drive. I noticed that the new one did not have this. Well to my great suprise I found out that comes off fairly easily. So I took it off and put it on the new hard drive and replaced it. When I fired up the laptop and hit 'F2' sure enough there was a hard drive there ! I ran the restore CD's and it is working like a champ. Thanks to everyone for their suggestions !

 

Good to hear! Make sure you run all the updates for XP sp2