I don't know what to do...

If it is an HP Win7 Upgrade kit Installation DVD it should boot to do the clean install, which is what you want with the kind of corruption you describe.

Boot the DVD by setting it first to boot in BIOS setup, or by tapping at boot the one-time BIOS Boot menu key which is F12 on HP.

Adapt the steps to get a Perfect Reinstall in my signature below to get it perfect.

Let us know if there are any further problems.

Well, I believe I've made some more progress; I'm under the impression I clicked upgrade instead of the custom(advanced) option. Right now it's in the "Installing Windows..." screen and is 24% done Expanding Windows files.

I'm still a bit hesitant though, because I clicked to format the partition and I don't think it formatted everything. On the tutorial it shows that the disk shows the disk name as "Disk 0 Unallocated space" On mine it said "Disk# Windows 7."

But so far everything is matching the screenshots shown on the tutorial, so here is to hoping everything I did everything correctly this time.

You should not have had the option for Upgrade install (only Custom) if you booted the DVD.

Your Disk will not necessarily read the same as the tutorial's. The installer only does a quick format. I prefer to delete, re-create the partition and format.

Well, everything was going well....

Then the battery died! Now it tries to boot up and the screen flashes then pops up a window that says "The computer restarted unexpectedly or encountered an unexpected error. Windows installation cannot proceed. To install Windows, click "OK" to restart the computer, and the restart the installation."

So I clicked "OK" and it keeps coming back to this error. So I decided to start over like before; by changing the boot to look at the optical drive first and boot from the CD like before. But its not working, it's not giving me the option to "press any key to boot from CD or DVD." It just goes right into trying to start Windows and back to this error screen, and the BIOS is defaulting back to the hard drive as it's first boot option.

Try cleaning the Windows DVD & DVD drive.

You should not have been able to even proceed with the installation on battery power. Even so, it is careless.

If cleaning the DVD and drive doesn't help, reset the CMOS: Clear CMOS - 3 Ways to Clear the CMOS - Reset BIOS

Try booting DVD using one-time BIOS boot key given on first screen.

Use free Partition Wizard bootable CD which will autostart to Wipe the HD, then DVD should autostart too.

If these fail, confirm ISO integrity and burn another DVD using ImgBurn at 4x speed. If retail DVD, extract it's ISO using UltraISO trial version to write to bootable flash stick: On file tab Open DVD, on Bootable tab Write Disk Image, Format, Write. Boot under USB or HD's.

Well lads, work beckoned so I wasn't able to get on yesterday. But I'm happy to say I'm typing this from my computer!

I'm not sure what I did - but whatever it was - I must've did it right because this thing finally booted from the optical drive.

I wish I knew more about computers so I could give back to the forum somehow...because I feel a simple "thank you" isn't enough to express how grateful I am to you lads. But I mean it, thank you very much for all the help and patience you all have shown me. If any of you ever find yourself in Kansas, and in need of some gunsmithing done, I'll be happy to oblige any way I can.

Again, thank you.