What can I do about a "No bootable devices" error?

[computern00b121]

Hi guys,

I'm not sure if i am posting this in the right place so lets hope its ok! i have a dell insipron with xp installed, and today when i went to start it up i got an error reading "no bootable devices-- strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility press f5 to run onboard diagnostics

i tried rebooting but the same thing happened
someone told me to start it up with the operating system cd, when i tried this i just got an error saying there is no hard disk installed...
i ran the onboard diagnostics which are all normal

does anyone know what else i can do?! im really really bad with computers so any help would be very much appreciated !

Sarah

 

[fastco]

Sounds like a dead hard drive.... You will need to replace the hard drive .. To be sure you can download an Ultimate Boot CD and run some of the tools to see if the drive is DOA or the Master Boot Record is corrupt.