old dell xp not recognizing harddrive

[allen76693]

Acquired old dell desltop with formatted HD, nothing but unalllocated partition. I have an old legal disk (home) that I attempted to install. It went into setup to opening windows stage and reported setup did not find any HD devices. Have no clue about powering on drive or if its properly comnected. Actually not a dummie, but been while since I used any windows OS
Plus being 80 somewhat a challenge. Please advise and thanks

 

[Elizabeth23]

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-xp/help/setup/install-windows-xp
http://www.windowsxphome.windowsreinstall.com/sp2installxpcdoldhdd/indexfullpage.htm
http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=44636
Clean installs of XP sites

However, if the Operating system is not the same as what was originally on the Dell then, it will not install. For example, you can not put Home edition on a Pro system.