I just replaced the HD and when I start it up holding down the "c" key

Question

After this hard drive replacement it looks and sounds like it's going to boot and then I get the apple logo followed by a small circle in the middle of the screen with a diagonal line thru it like and stops booting or doing anything. Also when I get to the part where I can choose either the Mac OS icon to run the install or the Hardware test program ...when I try the hardware test it starts o run and then tells me my machine isn't comatible with the hardware and forces me to restart...don't know if that helps at all   thanks in advance for you help with this
PS I am using the disk that came with the laptop best as I can tell I am the 2nd owner

Answer 1

You can give it a try:
Drive Preparation
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button.  When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the File menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area.  If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing.  SMART info will not be reported  on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
If the installer disc does not provide the security options for Steps 4-6, then just skip them. After formatting is completed quit DU and return to the installer. Now install OS X onto the new drive.