Laptops

I actually think that a 160 GIG HDD will be too big for the BIOS to read but look at the size of the original HDD and then work from that point on.

Also as you didn't mention the type of HDD bought it's impossible to say with any certainly as if it's a SATA Drive No that Dell will not be able to even attach it without a Plug In PCI to SATA Card and Power Adaptor. If it's an IDE or PATA which are the same it will plug into the leads and will power up but may not be visible to the BIOS or the BIOS may report it as smaller than it's actual size.

As I can not get any information on this model I'm not sure just how big a HDD you can use and still be fully usable by the BIOS this will be your limiting factor so if you look at a new BIOS Update and see what it identifies as possible to use that will give you some idea. Generally speaking you can go to about 50% bigger than supplied as the standard HDD by Dell though they did have options to go bigger on some of the P4 units so it could have been at it's upper limit before you even had the drive fail.

However the good news is that this is a standard IDE interface HDD that can be bought from any Computer shop as the latest BIOS available is version A 02 released on the 7-8-2003 I don't think that the BIOS will be able to recognise a 160 GIG HDD as they where not freely available back in 2003 or at least within the reach of most people as it would have cost more to buy one that size than the computer itself.

However if you can not return the drive and get an exchange for something smaller you can always stick it into a USB Caddy and use it as a Backup device so it's not a complete loss.

What you'll need is a IDE or as they are sometimes called PATA HDD of around the same size as was originally fitted and all that should be required is bolting it in place and then plugging in the Data Lead and Power Cable and then you should be able to install the OS from the Recovery CD without a problem.

Just a Note of caution here before you start to install the OS copy the Product Key off the COA as the 25 Alpha Numeric String is hard to read on the COA so it's better to make a copy of the Product Key when you can twist and turn the case so you can read the COA.

Col