There is a grey cloud over me.

I own a 13" macbook 2nd gen.

First my screen breaks so instead of fixing it, I turned it into a desktop with a 19" external monitor.

Then a few months later my hard drive fails.

After long discussions with myself I've decided to fix what I've got.

I purchased a 320g 7200 seagate 2.5 drive and installed the drive.
Powered on the computer, but the external monitor isn't displaying anything.
Infact it says there is "no signal"

Will I be able to install this new drive and get this mac running again without having to replace the display?
Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance,

I don't believe the OS installer supports mirroring to an external. I assume you've tried hitting F7 to see if it will turn on?

Most likely the only solutions are either fixing the LCD or installing the OS on that hard drive on another machine and then moving it back.

That's what I figured. I haven't tried F7, will try tonight, but doubt it'll work.
Will most likely just format the drive in another unit as suggested. thanks for the help.