Hi
Sorry to hear that a simple memory upgrade has caused such a problem, the problem may be that the BIOS has changed due to the new memory install, and as such the first boot device may have changed, or you have jiggled a wire loose inside and now the Harddrive is not being detected.
First open the case and grab a torch, find the wires that come from the HD, one is a flat grey cable and the other a 4 part cable , follow the flat grey cable (the IDE Cable) back to the Motherboard and ensure it is seated correctly, also check it is sat in the HD correctly, the other cable is the power lead check that is in correctly, also swap it with a spare in case it is faulty.
if that works, there you go ... if not read on...
When the computer POST's that is you get the white writing on a black screen look for "Press DEL" or "Press F2" to enter BIOS\ setup or similar.
Once in BIOS look for a section that that may or not be there called IDE auto detection, if its there go into it and see if the HD is detected, if its not there have a look around the BIOS for anything that lets you detect it, some BIOS's have an option some dont, The only Dell I used was a 250 and the BIOS was a bit wierd when it came to detecting new HD's.
The other option is to take the HD to a pal or shop and see if its detectable and bootable in another PC, remember though just to let it get to the XP load screen, any further and it will blue screen due to a difference in hardware, if this happens it can mess the OS.
Thats all I can think of for now, let us know if its of any help..
Regards