Hard Disk is completely gone, please Help.

[Phenom2kx]

Hey
Yesterday when I tried turning on my PC, it ran the starting thing will all the PC info and the Ram build up but then after that it went to a screen with a blinking underscore which doesn't allow me to do anything, even type.
Luckily I have another PC to use but the other one had a lot of valuable stuff on it, I can't even enter the bios screen by hitting F2. I realized it was the HD as when I tried to re-format with my windows xp cd, whether or I pick reformat or repair it wont allow me to continue as it says there are no drives to be found so there is nothing that I can do.
How do i fix this, is it too late for me to save the stuff on the HD or what, OK thanks if anyone can help, but please, it is very urgent. Bye...

 

[Nodsu]

Is the drive recognised by the BIOS?
At bootup after the memory check you are presented with a list of drives, it should inclue your hard drive and your CD/DVD drive.

If the BIOS can't find the drive then you either have a loose cable, wrong master/slave setting or a bad drive.

If the BIOS finds the drive but you just can't boot from it then you either have a bad drive or a corrupt boot loader.

 

[Phenom2kx]

I was told from a friend to put the HD on the PC I'm using now to see if it still works, the only thing is I don't know where it is located what it looks like.

 

[Nodsu]

It's a flat black or silver metal box measuring some 4x6x1 inches possibly with a wide ribbon cable running into it. Don't mix it up with your floppy drive

 

[Phenom2kx]

I got it.
I put it in my other PC and the HD worked. I put all the stuff to CD's.
OK, well my problem is somewhat fixed. Thanks...