Help-My hard disk has disappeared!!!

Sorry, sure this is a stupid question as well, but where would this be listed exactly? When I start up my computer I get some BIOS info, but it says nothing about the hard drive...How would it be listed????

Either in the BIOS boot screen or in the BIOS setup. When a hard disk is disconnected or fails, you won't see it in these BIOS screens.

Drives do fail, and it shows how prepared the owner was for the eventual demise. You've heard about BACKUP. Now you may get to test yours.

Bob

No, I tried to start in safe mode and followed all the steps listed on my help disk, but it didn't work....I still got the message 'no hard disk found'.
Excuse me if I ask a very silly question- but what is the FAT??

It's the directory on the Hard Drive that tells where everything is located. That's usually what is corrupted when you get that kind of error. The puter can't find the disk. Although it could be something else, like a virus.

Thanks very much for your reply. I do you usually get to the bios screen with the start-up disk or by holding down the ctrl key, but it doesn't go any further from there.

I might use the antivirus software you recommended, that is something I should test. It might have been a virus, as my computer kept freezing before it broke down completely and also wouldn't shut down properly. But then my machine is pretty old- about 5 years and was also purchased at ALDI, it's a 'Lifetec' laptop, 5 years is probably good for that! And yes, I can hear the disk spinning. Do you think that means it has died of old age?

Thanks very much for your help, I really appreciate it!

According to surveys five years is about the life expectancy for laptops, especially for one purchase five years ago. I would bet that hard drive would be expensive to replace if it has died. You could probably almost buy a new laptop for what it would cost to fix it. After you have exhausted all means of trying to get it to boot I would try to reformat the drive and reinstall the operating system. My old laptop did the exact same thing. It locked up(froze)like yours. When I rebooted the machine I could hear the drive running but the keyboard would not respond and the screen was black. There was no way to get into it. The estimate to repair it was $600 minimum, because the drive by itself was like $550. Probably closer to $750 if I had decided to have it repaired. Hate to give you bad news like that but that is probably what your looking at. When you consider the capabilities of a new Laptop today it doesn't make sense to repair it. I have a new HP pavillion 4400 that makes my old laptop seem archaic. Bigger brighter screen, 40 gig HD, wireless, I could go on and on. Got it for about $900 so thats why I say paying a lot to repair the old one is money wasted. Of course that depends on the specs. of your machine. Good luck. Let me know if that works.
Modemmogul