Go into the BIOS and request that a detailed power-on-self-test be
displayed. Note that this option is sometimes invoked by turning off an
option for a quick boot, rather than be turning on an option for details.
Then, save changes, reboot, and watch the screen.
Is the hard drive recognized during the POST? If not, then the drive, the
controller to which it is connected on the motherboard, the drive's power
supply, or its signal cable are bad. Replace or otherwise test parts one at
a time.
If the hard drive is seen in the BIOS and labeled as "healthy" or similar,
then the problem is more likely software related. That could be the boot
record, the partition table, one or more of XP's files, etc. Boot sectors
and partition tables can be tested via a bootable CD containing a different
operating system, such as LINUX or possible even DOS. Try one or more of
the following:
1. Ultimate boot CD, many tools to test things, free-DOS based.
http://ubcd.sourceforge.net/
2. KNOPPIX, a full-featured LINUX CD (does not write to hard drive, and can
read NTFS partitions.)
http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html
Note that for any CD to boot a PC, the BIOS should be configured to boot
from CD before hard drive. If you happen to have a floppy drive, be sure
that it has nothing in it, or the PC may attempt to boot from that before
the CD.
It should also be possible to boot the PC from the XP CD and run the
recovery console, which is a part of that CD. It can be used to fix boot
records and also to write a new BOOT.INI file, if necessary. Here are some
links about the recovery console:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/win_xp_rec.htm
http://www.wown.com/j_helmig/wxprcons.htm
http://www.xxcopy.com/xxcopy33.htm (near bottom)
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm (about number 26 in list)
