aziebel :
I will try to make this brief. I have a dell dimension 2400 that the hd went down. I have a like new IBM drive installed, the bios recognizes it, however, I cannot get the computer to re-install the cd that i have from dell to reinstall xp. i have the boot sequence to start with the cd, however all I get is press f1 to try again, for f2 for setup. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
thanks
adam
It won't re-install on a new hard drive. The drive needs to have previous Dell installation of XP, and the Dell disk restores it.
Another issue is that Dell makes many computers so they won't work with off the shelf hardware. You must use Dell hardware only, which has proprietary system pre installed on the drive when you buy it. This includes the RAM memory sticks.
At the very least you will need a new XP installation disk. You might need a Dell hard drive.
Well you should be pressing F2 for setup if you can get it to work.
Amazon has the best deal on XP pro install disks, installer version is cheaper, you will need the motherboard drivers from the dell or intel websites. Check your motherboard model number.
The best deal on a dell drive is on e bay, it's velociraptor. But is your system IDE or SATA? I used one in my system and it works great. There are some velociraptor Dell IDE drives around if you search on e bay.
Now the lesson to be learned: Dell and other manufacturers make computers so they don't accept regular parts, you have to buy proprietary parts, to avoid this, build your own computer with off the shelf hardware.
Never buy a computer unless it comes with the entire operating system on a CD, NOT a restore disk. never depend on the system restore that is installed into the computer, many times it won't work. Always get ALL your drivers on a CD from the manufacturer, before you pay. Otherwise, you may find yourself stuck and out of luck.