Winxp home Dell ------ Hard drive not found --sata

[mecn]

Hi, all

I have dell dimension4700. I reinstalled winxp to solve original xp home
problem(can't remember what was the proble).
Everything was ok. A week later, It pop up windows message it says that I
need to register the winxp home edition. I kept ignoring it.
Few days later my computer rebooted once a while automatically. It was still
ok. laste week, when I tried to start the computer, it says that Hard drive
not found with dell black backgroud and F1 , F12 keys instruction.

Any ideas?

Thanks

 

[mecn]

Forgot to mention it, The hard drive were running very fast --- I can hear
the noise.
then the computer reboot by itself(happened 3-5 times total.) ----- Over
heated?

 

[Guest]

what does your cmos say. Press n hold f1 or del or f10 key upon power up.
in the cmos you will see a listing of your drives... if the hard disk
indicated or does it say auto or does it say none? sometimes you can press
the f3 key so that it will search for your harddrives.....