Have an HP box and trying to replace the 9G hard drive with a new 40G. Took out the old master drive and plugged in the new drive in it's place.
Can't boot up from the XP CD, even when tapping F8.
I always get the HP screen with a F2 setup choice which doesn't allow me to boot from the WinXP CD.

Anyone know how to get around this ?

Thanks

F8 only gets you to the OS boot menu option; it won't lead you to any option where you choose the actual boot device.

Using the F2 key, enter your BIOS setup.

* Make sure the Hard Drive and CD Drive are properly detected/reported in the BIOS' list of installed devices. If one of the devices is not detected, double-check the cabling and Master/Slave jumpers on all of the drives.

* Look for the boot device order configuration. Make sure the boot order is as follows:
1. Floppy disk
2. CD/DVD drive
3. Add-in controller cards
4. Hard drive
5. Network boot

* Save the configuration and exit the BIOS setup. The system should now look for bootable media in the floppy drive, CD-ROM drive, and on any peripheral controller cards before it looks to the internal hard drives attached to your motherboard.

If you have problems/questions with the above, please include the model # of the computer and the make/version of the BIOS (if possible) in your next post. Also- I'm making the assumption that the devices in question are IDE drives which are connected directly to the motherboard. IF this is not the case, please give us the details of your hardware configuration.

Followed the BIOS directions but it still will not boot from the CD, it always displays F2 options.

It's a HP Brio model, Pentium III, 600 MHz,
BIOS version: HW.27.09(QHW.09.05)

The new drive is a Seagate 40g. IDE
the CMOS Setup utility is reading it as:
> IDE Primary Master WDC WD4000BB-75DEA0

However when I select the Master and hit enter, it shows this:
IDE HDD Auto-Detection (Selecting says auto detecting but it does nothing)
Type Auto
Cylinder 0
Head 15
Sector 63
Capacity 0Mb
Access Mode Auto
P10 Mode Auto
Ultra DMA Mode Auto

Any ideas ?

Model #: DB771T

* What (if anything) does the BIOS report for the CD-ROM drive?

* I'm not familiar with that particular model of HP; what options are you given when you press F2?

* The original BIOS description of the HDD (WD4000BB-75DEA0) looks right, but I'm not really sure aboutthe autodetect info; sometimes the "auto" setting reports weird or seemingly incomplete drive info.

Hello bro...If above instruction still cannot...I think u might find the recovery cd from hp because the original desktop cannot recognize the pirate os.....Or maybe you have the problem with your cdrom...Your secondary should be the type of your cdrom from the bios setup...

Advice

When u always want to use a new Hard disk, use a cd of OS labled "For distribution with a new PC only...."

regards,

ben.