My hard drive went out and so I purchased a new one.  I've never set up a hard drive before so I was needed some help.  I was going to take it SOMEWHERE, but I figured if I can figure it out, then I can save quite a bit of money.  Anyway, I was going to have the place partition the hard drive into a C:/ & E:/ drive (for recovery), but on my manufacturer website, I found this:

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HOW TO: RESTORING the MD5275 without the E partition
 
Tasks
The MD5275 laptop can be restored if the E partition has been deleted or if the C partition SIZE has been modified.

The laptop can be restored using the Application and Support DVD as long as the C partition is still formatted with NTFS file system. If an operating system such as Windows 98, Windows ME, or Linux has been installed this procedure will not work.

To restore:

Put the Application and Support disc into the CD/DVD combo drive and restart the laptop.
Select Boot From CD-ROM on the boot menu that comes up when the laptop restarts.
Select e on the language menu for English.
Select Setup Recovery from CD from the restore menu.
Press enter on the red warning screen.
Type the word start and then press enter on the pink warning screen.
The restore screen should appear with a yellow progress bar at the BOTTOM of the screen. Continue to the next step if you do not see a progress bar. Skip to Step 8-10 if you do see a progress bar.
Press the escape key. You should now be at an A:\> prompt.
Type in the following command: fdisk /mbr and then press enter. You should return to the prompt with no ERRORS.
Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart your laptop. Go back to Step 2 to restart the restore.
After the restore process has finished, the laptop will reboot and attempt to load Windows XP. However, when Windows tries to load, an NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM stop error (blue screen) will appear. To fix this, you will need to do the following:

Insert the Medion Product Recovery (Windows XP) CD into the combo drive. Turn the laptop off and then back on.
When the "Press any key to boot from CD..." prompt appears, press any key on the keyboard.
Wait for the Windows XP Setup to load. Press the R key on the keyboard to start the Recovery Console after setup has finished loading.
In 10-20 seconds the recovery console will appear with a C: prompt.
At the C: prompt, type chkdsk /p and press enter.
When chkdsk is finshed, type exit and wait for the laptop to restart.
When the laptop restarts Windows will load normally.
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So, it seems I may not need to waste room on a recovery drive if I can just do this process if needed.  The instructions assume Windows is already loaded, I think.  Well, the new hard drive hasn't been formatted.  So, basically I am looking for instructions to help me get to the beginning on the instructions I just listed.  I need to know how to format the hard drive.  When I install it and turn on the laptop, will it load to have me format or what?  I need to just format it with a C:/ drive with the NTFS file system.  Any help is appreciated and if anyone can give me one set of instructions to walk me through it, I will send them $5.  Thanks.Well. In order to do that you need a startup disk so you can enter in and partion the drive. As far as im concern windows 98 startup disk has the command fdisk.exe. To get a startup disk go to www.bootdisk.com and have a blank floppy ready. Once you get in with fdisk.exe just enable large disk support and partion it yourselfs. Need more instructions let me know Oh by the way if you partion the drive make sure you type the amount of space you want in each drive. If you dont it will only make one drive and then you have to erase the whole hard drive start it raw and redo it again. So make sure you have the amount of space for each drive.  Do I need to make a boot disk from the computer that I am replacing the hard drive on or will any computer do.  Also, if I don't partition it, do I just choose NTFS and no partitioning (not sure what options they will give me are).  Thanks.  I may try this after work tomorrow.Also, I have a full install CD of Windows XP Professional.  Can I use this somehow instead of my manufacturers XP Home Edition?  I think the first part of the instructions (the application CD) loads Windows.  At least that's what Medion said when I called them.  So, could I do XP Professional CD for step 1 and then follow the 2nd part for the drivers or would that overide Professional with Home Edition.  Or can I somehow install XP Professional and then download the drivers from the Medion site?  Thanks again.Yet another question:  After viewing a site from my college (IU), it says to basically just put the XP Professional CD in and it will walk me through everything.  First it will ask me to delete all partitions (which I won't have any) and then once I have "unpartitioned space" available, I select it and choose my file system.  Will this method work since I don't have a partition even yet?  Also, would I still need a backup disc and would I still need to download any kind of drivers from the Medion site like the BIOS drivers they have?  Thanks again.About the XP Professional CD-- since the IU site recommends to reformat and then install XP, I'm assuming it is a full version that I should be able to do on a new hard drive, correct?

Also, if it is, then I definitely want to go that route.  So, I need instructions on what to do after I install the hard drive using the XP Professional CD.  Thanks.Anyone?  I just need instructions on how to get the hard drive up and running using the XP Professional CD.  Thanks. Quote

Also, if it is, then I definitely want to go that route.  So, I need instructions on what to do after I install the hard drive using the XP Professional CD.  Thanks.

What did you mean by configured (M/S/CS)?  Also, so I don't need a boot disk or anything then?  Thanks.