My PC is a Dell Dimension 3000. It recently started prompting me, before Windows XP started to "hit F1 to continue or F2 to enter Setup" Before that it said that "primary HARD drive not found". Now, I did all the F2 stuff to no avail, however, pressing the F1 key booted XP and I was on my marry way. This became annoying after awhile so I asked Microsoft what gives? They suggested I do a Disc screen and that would most likely fix the problem. This I did. Guess what? The PC would not boot under any circumstances. Not even starting with the CD/ROM drive. Microsoft, after hearing the not so good news from me, called Dell to see what happened? We all had a nice conference call and the end result from Dell was, "your Hard Drive is corrupt, you need a new one"... you didn't think that they would shoulder any of the blame did you? So, naturally I was a little short in what I had backed up which is why I am writing this NARRATIVE. Obviously there are things on the HD that I need! And can't get! I purchased a new 500GB and installed but I really believe that the old HD is not corrupt just a little something else that inhibits the thing from booting. What do you think? Please, I am SURE you must have questions so please feel free to send them. I will do my best to reply with more information. ThanksYou can try hooking it up jumpered as a slave drive and see if the data can be seen...if so copy and burn what you can ASAP as if the drive is failing you may not get a 2nd opportunity...