Format hard drive

2. I have just installed a new hard drive into my system and it doesn't seem to work at all what should I do?

It is always best to start at the beginning and go through step by step

1. Check the physical connections to ensure that they are firmly in. Check that the drive is connected to both an ide lead and a power lead.
2. Check that the ide lead is connected the correct way around. The rule with this is that the red stripe goes to Pin 1. Pin 1 should be marked on both the drive and the mainboard but for general guidance you will find that on the back of hard drives pin 1 is usually nearest the power lead.
3. Check the jumper settings both on the hard drive and on any other device connected to the same lead. Each lead will support 2 IDE devices, one is called the master and the other is called the slave. On each device you will generally find that the jumper settings are listed (though they are often done so in a confusing manner). If you are unsure of the settings then try your new drive as the only device on the cable. Note that most drives when new come set as master.
4. Power on the computer and run the Bios Setup.
5. Most bios setups will have an option to auto detect hard drives. When you run this it will find all drives attatched. If it does not find your drive and you are convinced that it is firmly attatched through a working lead (the lead tested by using another hard drive) and the jumper settings are correct then you have 3 possible problems. The hard drive is faulty, The motherboard is faulty, or the two are incompatible. In order to find which case is correct you will need to test the hard drive on another computer. If it works on another computer then either there is a fault with the motherboard or they are incompatible. If it doesn't work on another system then assuming all components are new it is likely that the drive is faulty.
6. Once the bios has found the new drive then it needs to be FDISKed and formatted.