Can't access hard drive

Is this a new hard drive that you are fitting to a desktop PC?
If it is a new - empty- hard drive it will have to be formatted before you can install Windows.
If it is a hard drive that you are fitting as a slave you may be fitting it on the wrong part of the IDE data cable, or if SATA, on the wrong motherboard connector. IDE data cables have many pins and are grey and wide.
On an IDE cable you may have 3 connectors. One which fits the motherboard, and 2 connectors to fit drives. The connector FURTHEST away from the motherboard is the MASTER. The middle connector is for the slave.
On the rear of a hard drive you also have 'jumper connectors'. The location of these connectors sets the drive as either master or slave. On an IDE data cable the master drive must be at the cable end with the jumper connector set to master (or 'cable select'). The slave drive - on the middle connector - must have its jumper connector set to 'slave' (or 'cable select').
If you are using SATA, the hard drive should be set to master or slave.
However, it would appear your computer IS recognising the drive. To check, restart your computer and press the delete key as it boots up (or it may be another key ..it tells you on the start up screen which key to press to access the bios settings).
Access the bios settings and look for the disk information. It will tell you if the disk is detected and whether it is a primary master or primary slave. You can always try disconnecting your dvd drive (power off the computer first..) and fitting the hard drive in its place. Restart the computer and go into the bios settings again. Is the drive now recognised as the secondary master? It well may be just incorrect location on the cable/jumper settings/where the cable is connected to the motherboard.
If it is just a single hard drive you have and it is new, Your computer will tell you that it needs formatting before you can install an operating system or software.
If it's a second hand drive you are fitting, your computer will not boot up even if the hard drive already has Windows on it. You will have to reinstall Windows from a dvd.
If it's your existing hard drive which had been previously working ok, remove the data cable and reconnect it. It may be a 'dry joint' causing the problem. If disconnecting and reconnecting the cable on an existing hard drive does not work .. begin to suspect a failing hard drive

According to Microsoft, Windows 7 must be installed on a primary partition. This error code means the installer hasn't found a primary partition on the target drive. The primary partition must be on the first hard drive in the boot order, and if you have more than one user partition (not counting the small drive table partition), you must install to the first user partition. Unfortunately MS doesn't seem to have a clear, comprehensive answer to the issue. I've gleaned the following from various forum responses.

For some reason the installer is date sensitive, so make sure the time and date are correct in the BIOS. Time your next install attempt so it will NOT go past midnight during the installation.

Check your BIOS settings to make sure the drive is listed as a "primary" drive (drive 0, not drive 1) rather than a secondary.

Some people have had problems with the Windows 7 installer on drives that have the Master Boot Record from previous installations. Try a FORMAT /MBR using the Windows 7 install CD. If this doesn't work,

1. Use the partition command to remove the target partition from the drive to wipe this out
2. Partition the now unused space and reformat (again!), and
   
3. If the partition command or installer has an option to set a partition as primary (or something else), choose primary (disk 0) for the partition you want to use for Windows 7.

If all else fails, use your HP Software Recovery CD to do a complete repartition and reformat. You could use the Windows 7 partition command to do the same thing, but then you would lose the HP System Recovery partition. However, if HP is marking the System Recovery partition as partition 0, it could be causing the problem. In that case, see if HP has an updated version of the CD that includes a fix for this, or do without it and turn it all over to Windows 7.

Floydage, some ribbons are different in the orentation of pin#1. try a differnent cable...but you said that you tried that right.? have you tried to make sure you have the latist BIOS. It could be this paticuler drive have a different bios it self...and yes drive's do have chip's and software in them. If nothing ells just load the OS to that drive anyway and than change the drive letters in windows.

if you want to connect two hard drive together then remove the jumper of the primary hard drive and don't touch the setting of the secondary drive then start the system.always make primary drive which have the os.

The SATA Drives do not need jumpers to set primary and secondary drive positions. Each sata drive gets it's own connection to the motherboard. Check you motherboard diagram, and make sure the 320GB drive is plugged into the 1st sata controler, and that the 500GB drive is connected to the 2nd.

there are few thing you ahve to keep in mind

there are two type of hard disk
1. IDE
2. SATA

As per your hdd capacity it should of IDE type.

Now there are two IDE slots on motherboard. One is Primary and other is Secondary

You can fix two hdd with one IDE Slot that mean you can fix up upto faour IDE hdd at a time

Now again there are Primary master and Primary Slave

and

Secondary Master and Secondary Slave

Now You have to examine what was the location of previous hdd
1 Primary Master
2 Primary Slave
3 Secondary Master
4 Secondary Slave.

Now you have to make a HDD master or Slave.

just in between data cable connector and power cable connector there is a jumper. that specify the master or slave. do reply me if it works well thanks

You can download the data lifeguard diagnostic utility off WD's website.

Stuck keyboard key????

I have come across this before, and I think its to do with the arrangement of the jumpers on the back of the hard drive. It usually gives a picture on the top panel of the hard drive to show you what way the jumper(s) have to be arranged to make your drive work on the Primary channel. This shouldn't really cause for much concern if your PC boots up from the third primary master, however if you have other harddrives you may have a cause of concern. Hope this helps.