Maximum PC

First off hello everyone. I decided to join here to provide input and gain more knowledge for myself in the pc realm. So on to my questions.

So my brother wanted me to install his parts from his old machine into a new case because he wanted it to look cooler. Needless to say he also didn't mention the computers hard drive was wiped by him and he couldn't install the OS again. I figured I could just put it all back together and then get into BIOS and boot from the CD drive. Well that won't work and if it tries to start up it asks me where I want to boot from and I choose hard drive and of course no dice. Sometimes I can get into the system BIOS to change the boot from Hard Drive to dvd drive but it won't even boot from there! What can I do to reinstall his OS onto his hard drive? Can I hook up his HD to my computer and install it there then just load it back into his computer?

Yup, try to install an OS on your brother's HDD in your system just to see if the HDD is working. If it is, then something else is wrong with your brother's system. I suspect your brother's HDD has problems.

First off, Do you have a copy of any OS (Windows, etc) ?

If you do lets start there, and let us know what Operating system (OS) it is.

E

For my brothers computer it's Windows Vista Home Premium. I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium.

Put the Vista disk in the optical drive.

Start the computer and immediately start tapping the F8 key to get the boot menu and choose your optical drive, then watch for the prompt to hit any key to boot to the optical drive. It should run the windows setup from there.

Nasty

The boot menu key is different for every motherboard.

...so he can read a motherboard manual...yes? F8 was a start.

Nasty