YEs a system repair is the best way to go but fist make sure that you hardware is fine(hdd and memory) before,otherwise you might just end up doing it all over again and again!

This could one of many problems and like lawli56 said the best thing to do first is to check the memory and would even check the hdd for problems! if the hardware checks out you can then try and do...

i am not sure but you can always try ans see what happens, i have checked a lot of sites and forums and this method looks to be the best way,...

ok so normally when you try and setup from the xp cd and you have a sata disk, the setup wil tell you that it can not find a hdd on the system,so do you actually get to the pointwhere it does ask...

Hi there! When does it give you the message that there is no hard drive ? Are you booting from your Xp cd?? I would suggest you do this as from in windows vista!! Is it a sata or ide drive??