hi guys!

i was wondering if you could give me some idea if i could USE a 80gb on an old computer with 450mghz, 256 mb ram and 64 mb video card?Depending on the OS any HDD should be recognised on any machine...im usings windows XP sp1 and after installation gonna download sp2 in microsoft..ive already bought a 80gb hdd but when i try to auto detect the hdd in the bios it takes time and nothing comes out.Many new HDD's are not formatted from the factory...it needs to be formatted before Windows will recognise it.
This can be done with the utility CD that SHIPPED with the drive.
If you didn't get one it's AVAILABLE at the Manuf. website.
If the BIOS isn't seeing the drive it is jumpered incorrectly.ive removed my old hdd cause its already damage, and ive also set the jumper of the new drive to primary setting and when i try to auto detect it i wont show up and takes time..it doesnt matter if its not formatted yet i will gonna format it if it will be detected. no utility cd has been given to me.If it's the only HDD hooked up and jumpered to master and connected at the end of the IDE ribbon cable and the BIOS has trouble detecting it you may in fact have a bad drive...i've seen it before brand new out of the box.Check your bios again! if it does'nt show up, check your cable, make sure it is seated in the mainboard properly and in the hard drive. You should be able to find the drive info in bios. If you can't find it there is a problem with the hard drive.This is an idea---->Here

What happens when you use ultimate boot CD ?-->Here