Is this a (another) possible hard drive problem that's stopping my re-install?

I'm trying to revive our old Compaq Presario 2500 laptop; model# DS542U.
Running Windows XP Home.
It was, for a long time; un-bootable; so I succesfully created an XP boot cd (from the "howtohaven.com" website); a painstakingly time demanding procedure. But the disk came out successful.
I've been trying to reboot/start the laptop .. I was able to go ahead and re-format the hard drive, since we removed everything important long ago. The format went successful.
Then as the installation went forward I got the neassage:
Setup cannot copy the file: wininet.dll
I tried skipping the file, (it offered me that option) and that allowed the installation to proceed right along for a long time, but now it's stuck being able to go any further.
a blue screen lingers with the message: "Setup is being restarted"
The unit then goes into hard crash and keeps trying over again.
Question: might it by our hard drive? Even if the format operation (appears to have gone) successful?
Right now there's no OS onboard at all.
Or is there simply an issue of this mystery file that's missing?
If that's truly the case, how do I get that thing into the setup?
Thanks greatly for any help!
This forum (the one on desktop units) helped me greatly in the last two weeks getting our Media Center unit up and running) so I appreciate the feedback!
Michael

Hi, one further detail to ask help on:
I've been trying for the last hour to remove the existing hard drive; I've followed all the outlined steps on HP's website (and other sites) for this model; removed the appropriate screws; and I cannot, with even the greatest force I am willing to take a chance on exerting, able to pry this thing out. It comes out about an eigth of an inch ...
Whew! Is there some other trick I might have missed?
Wow, there must be some other fasteners holding this thing in, but no information is offered anywhere.
Thanks greatly,
Michael

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