I have a spare HD that is plugged into my pc but is completely wiped nothing on it not formated nothing, no OS or anything so its not being recognized. I was wondering,

How can I store files on it and just use it as a storage device WITHOUT having any type of OS on it?

DO this

1. Boot your computer into Windows XP.
2. Windows XP should recognize that you have added additional hardware and display a new hardware ballon near your system clock.
3. Open Disk Management in Windows XP.
   From the Desktop or Start Menu, right click on My Computer and select Manage. This will open the Computer Management window. Click on Storage and select Disk Management.
4. Initialize the new drive.
   Windows XP may launch the Partition Wizard to initialize the new drive. If so, skip ahead to the Partition Wizard step below. If not, right click on the new drive (it will be detailed as 'Not Initialized' and show a black bar to the right of it's properties) and select Initialize. This will prepare the new drive to be used by Windows. A simple wizard will be displayed to confirm your selection.
5. Right click on the drive's listing and select Partition. Follow the Partition wizard to finish the install process.
   The wizard will prompt you for several responses prior to creating the partition.
6. Finished! Once the drive has been initialized, partitioned, and formatted it will display as a healthy drive with the size and type of partition below the volume name and drive letter

Madmatt2006 has given a very comprehensive reply but I'd look at the POST and see if it shows two hard drives first.

If it sprints by too quickly then drop into your BIOS and check how many drives are being recognised there. If only 1, then anything madmatt has said is negated at this point.

The likelihood is that if you only have one then the 2nd drive is either jumpered or cabled incorrectly or could even be dead!