Ashes543 0 Newbie Poster

hi all this is my first post so bare with me
i have a hp pavilion ze4140 laptop when i switch it on i get the message to check the media cable i have gone into the bios and changed the boot settings to cd-hd- then i realised my hard drive was not recognised in the bios so i took it out and put it back in but still no luck. i did notice that their was no black connector thing on top of the hard could that be it .all help appreciated thanks in advance