I am having an issue with my laptop, it is a Acer with Win XP. When I power it up, it immediately asks how I want to start windows (normal, safe mode ect..) I have tried "normal" and "last known good configuration" and the pc just reboots and comes back up asking how to start windows. I selected just "safe mode" and the pc brought up the win XP logo, flashed a blue crash page quickly and rebooted again prompting on how to boot the pc. I changed the boot sequence to boot from CD Rom and inserted my original Win XP cd and tried to do a repair, I was told that there was no hard drive installed. I then tried to format using my XP cd and received the same error about no hard drive installed. Please any input would be greatly appreciated.

Replace the hard drive, and reinstall Windows. Put the old, defective drive into a USB enclosure, then plug it into the usb port of the Acer to see if it will read the drive as a slave. If it will, drag and drop all your most valuable files from that drive to the new one, or another one... as you do not know how much longer it will last to even perform that task,

I it possible that it is another problem, such as a hard drive cable that has vibrated off or a power connector, or whatever, but the hard drive is the usual suspect.

To check the drive first, remove it by removing one or two screws to access the drive compartment, and unplug, then reseat the cables or sockets to the hard drive. If reseating the drive doesn't work, replace the drive. It is the cheapest thing you can do...

Depending upon where you live, you can replace the drive for $45 to $80 US... by going to www.newegg.com, www.pcmall.com, www.directron.com, www.zipzoomfly.com, www.outpost.com, www.techdepot.com, www.CDW.com, ot other such online computer supply store.

Thanks for the info. I have tried reseating it already but still the same issue. I didn't realize that I could hook up the drive to a usb enclosure. I'll try that first, if I can't pull off the files then I'll try doing a low level format to it. Thanks again for your assistance.