New HDD, Unable to format

Hello, everyone.
I'm a windows dude, and I'm trying to help my girlfriend with replacing her mid 2010 Macbook Pro's HDD. The part where I'm stuck at is that I am trying to format it, or do anything at all with it, and I can't. I've booted from the installation CD/DVD, and when I go to disk utility the new WD HDD is listed, but I am unable to format it, or do anything with it, as all the options are grayed out.
How do I proceed from here?
Thanks for your time,
Roderick

This is the internal HD?
Can we confirm how you booted to the DVD, it's possible you somehow booted into recovery mode which can prevent erasing the entire HD (unlikely, but worth asking).
Please be aware that the top level item in the sidebar is the 'entire disk', any indented items below that are the actual volumes inside that disk's partition table. Erasing entire disks will be impossible if the disk is in use, volumes can normally be unmounted & erased.
Within Disk Utility you may need to create a partition table, depending on how the disk is currently setup - this begs the question – is this a new HD or an existing system?
This page has info on formatting disks…
http://pondini.org/OSX/DU1.html
You may want to skip 'step b' in the blue section & go to to the partitioning section to be sure the partition table is a GUID one.
P.S, if the disk is functional & you are reinstalling, the installer may repartition the disk for you, start the install process & see if it appears as a destination. You can quit & go back to Disk Utility if required.

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