Exactly what partitions is the BIOS checking for when starting a HP mini 110?

Question

My niece has a HP mini 110 that failed one day. On doing a bios hard drive check it failed (7 on read). I though I'd have to get a new one so I ordered another. While waiting for this to arrive I got access to a SATA usb bridge and as the opperating system was beyond repair and the disk unreadable by the HP mini, I decided to try to repair the disk. So I reformatted the old drive using my desktop computer. Windows had no problems with the drive and it seemed to run fine. 
I also had to order the recovery disks (windows 7 intro).
Anyway on trying to reinstall using the recovery disks via USB DVD drive. It kept coming back with error 17 - which I found to be a hard drive error. I also tried installing using a Windows XP installation disk and this was more self explanatory it said there was either NO hard drive installed  - or 'it didn't match the hardware specs for the unit' (or words to that effect)
On getting the new hard drive - same problem. Even though both of these hard drives work as USB drives connected to my main desk. SO, my conclusion is that on boot up the BIOS inspects the hard drive, checks to see the configuration of the formatting. i.e. the size and partitions etc. and when these are not matching the BIOS idea of proper specs it rejects the hard drive and considers there is none installed.  Or perhaps there needs to be some basic files on the hard drive. Whatever the case, the bios concludes there is no hard drive and will always return a 'fail' in the bios hard drive test.
Any ideas on this? I need to find out exactly what partitions are expected by the bios. Does anyone have these specs, or perhaps you have a HP mini and can examine your hard drive and tell me the partition amounts and sizes?
Unless I can get the bios to recognise the hard drive I can't see how I can reinstall the OS on to it. Any and all help much appreciated.
Thanks
When it comes to fixing computers the longest word in the English language is "JUST" . . . as in 'you just do that and it will work' :-)

Answer 1

beevo you have used your logic to come up with the answer but in this case you are just a little bit off. The hard drive error you see in the BIOS is a SMART error. This is read out by a chip inside the hard drive itself working in conjunction with the BIOS. The chip stores data and is constantly testing the drive and if the read time or seek time or such such parameter is out of whack it reports that to the BIOS and you get a SMART error. It is a pure hardware thing and has nothing to do with any partition scheme or anthing else to do with the actual contents of the drive. A blank hard drive (written with all 0s) will still throw off a SMART error if there is such an error. SMART errors vary in severity but my rule of thumb and the mainstream thinking on this is treat a SMART error like a diagnosis of an incurable cancer. The patient might live a while but his days are numbered. Back up, as stated above, and buy a new hard drive which you have apparently already done.
A drive with errors will sometimes format fine in Windows and work just fine as an external type drive with a usb connection but you would not want to use it for an operating system.
The fact that WIndows XP is not seeing the drive on installation is a Windows XP thing. Windows XP does not recognize SATA hard drives. You need to slipstream in a SATA driver while you run XP installation by either modifying the install CD or using a usb external floppy disk.
To be clear, have you tried the recovery disks with the new hard drive and you still get the error or you have only tried to install XP on the new drive? If you are getting the error 7 with the new drive, you may have bigger problems such as a bad storage controller on the motherboard. That kind of error can cause the BIOS to read out a SMART error, too. You might want to try a hard reset on the computer by removing battery and AC adapter, hold down the power button 30 seconds and then try to start it with the AC attached. You can also boot it with no hard drive in and try resetting the BIOS to default settings and try the hard drive again.
Also to be clear, is the error 7 actually showing up in the BIOS or is it showing up during installation from the recovery disks? Are the recovery disks Windows 7 or XP?