it sounds as though it may not be able to see the hard disk. have yu a disc that will boot (linux or winxp repair) to test the HD? Also one can boot from a USB (or floppy) if you have a drive... have u tried that and then test for HD?

I had a mboard fault in hte disk chips that gave these symptoms

BOL
M

Thanks. I don't seem to have a repair disk. How can I boot from a USB? Is there anything I can download onto a USB from my laptop?

trygoogle usb boot win xp software. u can dload sware to boot a modern computer via usb.
also any linux iso cut to cd should also boot.
if it an thensee the HD u can use a win repair disc (also see google win repair disk)
bol
m

Okay.
In order to boot from a USB you will need:
-A USB at least 2 gigs big.
-Access to a second computer
-Your original version of Windows <whatever> on CD
-A BIOS that allows booting from USB

Okay, so what you need to do is pop the CD into the other computer and open it up, install Windows <whatever>, but instead of installing it on the harddrive, make sure it's on the USB. Once that's done, you plug that into your computer, and see what happens.

If you get as far as plugging the USB into your computer and nothing happens;
See if you can get to your BIOS and check and make sure that it does actually allow for booting from USB.

If you do not have your copy of Windows, then try what the other guy suggested.