Reinstalling Windows Problem after HDD Failure (1 Viewer)

A computer at work recently had a hard drive failure. This seems a little odd, because it is a new computer with windows 7 installed on it. But stranger things have happened I'm sure. Anyway, the guy I work with went through trouble shooting with HP on the issue, and a new HDD was sent to him. I installed the hardware for him but was told he could install the software (I knew better than that!). So I let him have at it.

The next day, I found that he made multiple attempts to install Windows, and never got it working. So I gave my hand at it. I got through all four discs that HP sent us (three installation and one "supplemental"), and supposedly Windows should be installed now. I remove the last disc, and reboot the computer. When it starts, I see the BIOS screen, and then the screen goes black. I have tried to go into the BIOS menu, but it does not respond.

Any idea what is wrong?

Are you sure the problem you had a was a hard drive failure? Is the hard drive showing up in the post/bios?

You didn't install multiple times did you? Hopefully you used the same partition or you end up in a multiboot mode and it might be defaulting to the bad install.

Can you boot up with F8?

I would suggest starting over. You have no idea what he did to the drive. Reinstall windows on a reformatted drive.

The only thing i will add is, I agree that you should reformat the drive and start fresh, nothing worse than working on someone else's problem where you have no idea what they did.
Secondly, I did have a similar situation where i was not able to access my BIOS and the only solution for me was to Flash the CMOS.

Google it if you need to but it usually involves opening up the computer and finding the battery (watch batter) in close proximity to that, there is a 3 prong jumper. You take it off it's current 2 prongs, and place it on the other one. (the middle prong will always have a jumper on it) Then you wait a few seconds (usually the customary 10 seconds) and then put the jumper back, and this allowed me access to the BIOS. PLEASE Google it and/or ask someone with more knowledge about your machine before continuing down that path though.

I had a similar problem with windows 7. HP has some of the worst IT support I have seen (just like the old compaq routine) and I am an IT support tech.

The problem I had was also on an HP so I did what others here are telling you to do and format the drive again.

If you have an older xp install disc you can format with that by inserting it into the drive and booting from the cd. after all the loading blue screen stuff you can delete all of the partitions that show when it asks you where you want to install it.

Then you simply create a partition using all of the hard drive space, and when it asks you to format make sure it is ntfs and format the drive (not quick format).

what I do is wait for it to format, and before it can copy installation files, I pull the plug.

Then I put in the first installation disc for Windows 7, install the system, and go through the process again.

The black screen for windows 7 is the equivalent of the older screen that says "missing ntloader" when windows xp and under had a problem.