[gcowett]

HD crashed bad, so I ordered and installed this one HERE as a replacement. Is this even compatible? The HD shows up in the BIOS, but no matter what I do, the PC always ends up with a blinking cursor in the upper left of a completely blank screen after it displays the HP splash screen.
It won't boot a Win install disc, UBCD, BartsPE, Linux-based or any other bootable discs I have... and there's no provisions for a USB boot as far as I can tell (EDIT: yes, it does have that option). However, I no longer have all of the HP restore discs, so I can't try that w/o ordering a new set. Are the restore discs an absolute necessity for this machine? I just don't want to order them if I don't have to.

I've even tried disabling the add-on video card and using the on-board - same result.

All of the RAM shows up in the BIOS (new when HD replaced) and I get no unusual noises or error messages.

PC: HP Pavilion 505w (specs)
upgrades: PCI video card (can't remember model, but it's a 64mb Nvidia, and I now disabled)
2x512gb ram (installed at time of new HD) (specs)
USB mouse (MS)

Everything else is OEM

EDIT: I now get DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER after I disabled all of the boot choices except the CD-Rom