Old PC new OS: Win7 fails to boot using OEM DVD on clean hard drive

I have a PC on which the hard drive died. I had previously done the Advisor and it said everything is OK for new install of Win 7 Home Premium.

I removed old hard drive and 2 gigs of memory (now 2 gigs installed) installed new hard drive, set appropriate ( i think) BIOS parms. When I start the DVD I get the 'loading files' message and the colorful logo then a blank screen with a large arrrow cursor -- and nothing. Wait 5, 10 15 minutes and the only hint of activity is the hard drive light is flickering about once every 2 seconds. I've now waited for over an hour and still nothing else. Any suggestions for solutions ?

I've tried to do all the things that have been suggested for others who have had problems but it hasn't helped. Machine is a Dell 4700C with 3.4 GHz processor , 2 gigs of memory, only keyboard, mouse, and monitor attached in addition to the hard drive.

Help?

Okay....just to be sure, what do you mean when you say "OEM DVD"?

All of the Win7 installers are the same - retail or OEM - with other versions hidden. It is the key which determines which will activate.

Where did you get the Win7 DVD? Is it a Dell Reinstallation DVD? Clean it to make sure it's useable.

If not download a new ISO for your licensed version from the Official downloads list, then burn to DVD or write to flash stick using the tool given in these steps to get a perfect OEM reinstall: Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

If it continues to fail, then wipe the HD from DVD System Recovery Options Command Line using Diskpart Clean Command. Report back what happens and at what stage.

By OEM DVD I meant a copy of Win 7 Home Premium from a real vendor.

In a final attempt to figure out what was going on, early this morning, even though I had turned off access to all hard drives except one in BIOS, I physically removed the second drive that was installed in the machine (actually just disconnected the power and data cables) and went back in BIOS and reset BIOS to recognize all the drives that were available (now physically only one). Then I rebooted from the DVD and finally I got the install screens and was able to install Win 7.

Apparently, even though BIOS had shown the device as inaccessible it must have still been signalling that another drive was there and the installer couldn't make up its mind which one was the drive to be installed on. Or something less complicated.

Now all I have to do is find a data recovery program that will help me read the drive that flaked out. Any suggestions?

The secondary HD might have boot code which is interfering. When you plug it back in if it interferes, make sure the new Win7 HD is still set to boot first in BIOS setup. If it still interferes is it likely due to boot sector code which needs wiping. Move the data off externally and wipe the secondary HD with Diskpart Clean Command - you may need to unplug Win7 HD and do this using Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console or Paragon rescue disk to recover data.

You can also try the latter two to see if data is visible on the failed HD. If not you can try repairing it enough to retrieve data using HD maker's HD Diagnostic extended CD scan followed by Disk Check
if necessary from System Recovery Options Command Line.

If these fail then you can try Recuva - Features

If the hard drive died you can`t get the data off.

As you can imagine, I have no interest in losing the data I have on the drive.

I'm still trying to figure out how top download HD Diagnostics. Been trying Seagate's File recovery program with no luck. Since there are two partitions on the drive Seagate's File recovery sees the first partition - Ubuntu, but fails to see the following partition which has the data I want on it. And no, I can't boot into the Ubuntu partition either.