PB HD install issues

ok...after all my drama from previous posts...I finally was able to get a new HD for my comp and installed it with no problems but for some reason when I startup with the software install and restore disk I go through install but when I get to the hard disk part my HD doesn't show up (I hope I got a compatible HD, which I think is). When I go into disk utility it shows up but the icon during install is no where to be found and I cannot continue from there. help! any help will be greatly appreciated!

thanks, neye:

i had that problem when i installed a hardrive in a g3 powerbook. Go to the disk utility and look for initilize drive, that is what i did and it worked but that was also with an os 8.6 disk, but i hope this points you in the right direction.

thanks I'll go check that out. I don't think I remember seeing "initialize drive" but I could use anything at this point.

ok I am there and first of all I don't know much about hardware/install etc. so this is probably a dumb question but I see a partition button and within the box it says you can initialize this disk but there isn't a specific button to do so. would that be partitioning it? I basically renamed the volume (it was untitled at first) so next would be to partition it. when I press partition there is a warning telling me that new volumes will erase all existing volumes and cannot be undone! But this is the only volume right? This is why I couldn't be a newtwork administrator! any help will help thanks

You've got it partitions are ways of dividing your hard disk up into pieces - almost like slice of cakes. A new disk usually needs partitioning before use. Some people create partitions to separate their applications from there data. It can improve read speeds and stuff like that.