After installing a new hard drive on my sony vaio pcv rx860 how do I install operating system and software on this blank hard drive and how can I make it my master drive?

You must firstly install an operating system, assuming there is a hard drive/ssd fitted.
If no hdd fit an hdd and then place an operating system on it.

new hard drive needs to be formatted before software can be installed on the hard drive. you need to use advanced setting on the software installation, and then format hard drive.

As soon as you power up your system keep tapping F8 repeatedly until another screen pops up.
You can select reinstall Operating system (ie windows) / restore factory settings etc from there, Choose option which is suitable for yourslef. By doing it this way it reinstalls the OS that is already stored on your Hard drive so no disc is required.

Hope this helps and please rate

You would put the jumper on PINs 5 and 6 as pe image below to have it as master if it is an EIDE (PATA) drive.

You can upgrade the RAM to increase the performance of the Computer. The Computer is shipped with 512MB, PC-2100 DDR RAM and expandable to 1.5GB maximum. Please refer the page # 54 to locate the Memory slots and to install the RAM memory in the Computer. Please use the specific RAM: PC-2100 DDR RAM for best functionality
http://www.docs.sony.com/release/PCVRX860-p_hc.pdf

Ya, sounds like a powersupply. Try swapping it out and testing. That's your best test.

Its either your hard disk, video card or memory. try to resocket these stuff then power your computer on.

You say you see data on disks on your existing system, yet they appear blank when trying to install? Please try to dig a little deeper and find your setup file. Data wouldn't disappear unless your running NTFS now and the disks are FAT.

I would suggest first to try to take one stick of memory out and try to boot up the pc. Sometimes, one or both of the memory sticks can go bad or the memory slot on the motherboard itself can go bad. If that is not the case I would then remove all of the usb connected to the computer and last i would test the power supply.

Reinstall drivers for the usb ports. Eather on the company site or from your recovery disk that came with the system.