Gateway computer dx series. harddrive failure on original 640 gig hd.bought new terabyte hd.tried to install recovery disks made all the way trough installation .got to screen that says windows is setting up computer.left and came back an hr later and screen is blank and now blue power light is flashing and computer will do nothing

Very Rare Chance to recover all data. you might get some. that too if those sectors of hard drive are not overwritten while cloning.

Gateway DX300 Desktop PC is a series.

Could be a Gateway DX300MC, or DX300QS, or DX300S, or DX300X,

http://support.gateway.com/support/supinfo/index.asp?pg=2&file=DX300series.html

Fortunately all models in the series use a SATA harddrive.

[ Gateway DX300X Desktop PC used as an example,

http://support.gateway.com/s/PC/DX300/1008555/1008555nv.shtml

In the list click on - Components
On this page scroll down to the bold subheading - Harddrives

All models came with a Western Digital harddrive, but it doesn't matter what the harddrive manufacturer is, that you use ]

What size in GB amount? Depends on what you want. I myself wouldn't go more than 320GB.
That is because your anti-virus program has to sift through the harddrive.

The larger the harddrive, the longer it takes.

For more capacity, I would install a 1TB harddrive into an external enclosure, and use it connected to the computer, with it's USB cable.
(It will also come with an additional external power supply)

But that is just me.

Bear in mind that a new harddrive has no Operating System on it.
You have to purchase a genuine copy of Windows, and install it.
(This is if your harddrive presently on that Gateway is bad)

[ Microsoft makes one Master disk. From it all GENUINE copies are made, and sold to the consumer ]

Regards,
joecoolvette

I remember seeing your other post about this same request for help and you mentioned that Gateway wanted $149 to help you out.

Take the computer to a local repair shop if you need the operating system reinstalled. This should not cost more than $60 to install the same version of windows that was on your computer. Just make sure that the Certificate of Authentication (COA) sticker on the bottom of the laptop is legible so that they can know which operating system you had and what the key code (a series of five digits and letters) is.

if you have a new hard drive you will have to install the windows operating system from an external source such as a cd drive
go to bios --boot settings and change from 1st boot hard drive to 1st boot cd
install the win os and then you can install the rest
when finished go back to bios and -boot and change back to 1st boot hard drive

You can get a manual here:

http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/content.php?S_ID=450

Did you set the boot sequense in your bios ??

First your CD or DVD drive
Second you harddrive.

Harddrive must be in sata 0.
CD or DVD must be in sata 1.

Or look in the manual how the settings should be.

Good luck.

Now you need to repair your harddrive boot record.
For that insert vista disk into computer then when you power up the computer press F1 or F2 or del or ALt+F2 key to enter in bios .
Then go to boot menu and set first boot device as cd/dvd rom then save settings and exit then it boot with disk then enter in recovery console mode and run this command "fixmbr" without "" then press enter.
Then restart computer and again boot with vista disk this time choose R for repair previous windows then it repair it.
Let me know if you need further assistance.
Thanks for using FixYa.

If the board on a hardrive is bad, it is UNLIKELY that replacing the board will make the drive work. The original may have "tuning" to the disk that a replacemnt doesn't have.

To avoid data loss you would probably have to go to a recovery outfit and pay plenty.

Why not use your new hard drive as a storage disc. Reconnect your old hard drive as it was before. Hopefully it will boot the computer again. If it does, shut down the unit. On the primary bus, set your old HD as master & the new HD as slave with jumpers. Boot the unit & hopefully you will now have a "c"&"d" HD showing in My Computer. Remember that your are dealing with Windows & what should happen & what really happens can be two entirely different things.

Got rid of the FAT32 formatting on the HD. Can't believe they ship hd with FAT32. That did it.

Most of the tower cabin are supprots scsi hdd please check whether it is IDE or the scsi harddrive .