Windows 7: Problem installing English Windows 7 Starter on netbook with Korean XP

Hi,

I just bought a Gateway LT2030u netbook on eBay. The seller was upfront that he had replaced the factory English Windows 7 Starter with a Korean Windows XP installation. I figured no problem, I'd simply reinstall Windows 7 Starter from a bootable USB drive, as I've done many times without issue. So, I change the boot order and it starts reading from the USB drive. All seems fine until I get to the screen where it asks me what drive I want to install Windows to, and it doesn't show any hard drive. I had already fired up the machine and seen that it booted to Korean XP without issue and that the hard drive was a WD 250GB. In other words, there's a fully functional hard drive there but this English Windows 7 Starter install wasn't seeing it. I had the option to load a driver for the hard drive but that shouldn't have been necessary.

Anyway, I rebooted and tried again, but now I can't even get into the Windows 7 installation at all. When I boot from the USB drive I'm immediately greeted with a Windows Boot Manager error screen:

Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To fix the problem:

1. Insert your Windows installation disc and restart your computer.
2. Choose your language settings, and then click "Next."
3. Click "Repair your computer."

If you do not have this disc, contact your system administator, blah, blah, blah.

File: \Boot\BCd

Status: 0xc0000098

Info: The Windows Boot Configuration Data file does not contain a valid OS entry.

I then have the options to enter and continue or Esc-exit. Neither helps since the netbook then just reboots into Korean XP.

Help? I guess what I need to do is completely reformat the hard drive so that the USB drive won't get effed up by the existing Korean XP installation, but I don't know how to reformat the hard drive. My idea is to connect an external DVD drive and boot from Hiren's Boot CD and then run one of the WD hard drive tools to wipe the drive, but for some reason I'm nervous about doing that.

Any advice or help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.