Help! Trying to get Sony Vaio working, replaced hard drive and cannot figure out next steps

[aylaemeria]

I have a sony vaio vgn-c150p that i got from a friend, it has no operating system but is otherwise in perfect condition, at least physically. So far I've bought a new hard drive, and I've only been able to get my hands on a windows 8 install disc. When i start it up, windows starts to install and then abruptly stops. This message is displayed with a browse option: "one or more drivers is missing, either hdd, dvd, or usb. Please insert media with driver and press ok"
Now, I've been going in circles trying to learn what the next step is.
(my computer knowledge is self taught and still undeveloped)
The original operating system on the laptop was xp professional, i couldn't obtain a free version i trusted but is that my problem? can only xp be re-installed?
Please help me....
Thanks.

 

[hang-the-9]

Go into the BIOS and see what the drive mode is set to, set it to ATA, that is probably the most compatible one. If this will be just a general use system, you can try running Linux on it also, that may install easier.