I thought this machine was running Vista...
What exactly does it say on this recovery CD ? ?
If it is an OEM CD this is not going to work...
Stop now before you wipe everything out.I had the same problem with my desktop (getting to the windows screen before the log in screen and then restarting itself).... being the novice that I am (this was also before I had stumbled upon this website), i took it to a shop to get fixed and was told it was probably a virus and the guy had had a few clients with the same problem.  Have never had to have a pc fixed before, and am so hopeless with even the most basic of functions that I just took his word for it that it was a virus and forked out the $160 to pay for it.  Computer runs slowly, it's on xp and is quite a basic model, but maybe it was like that before as while it was getting fixed we bought a LAPTOP and i'm now more accustomed to a faster running computer. Funny thing is though, prior to our old desktop restarting itself when it reached the windows screen, we'd had a few powercut's where pc was cut off mid-use.  Just thought there were a couple of similarities between our problems, and am curious as to what others think regarding the virus diagnosisNo No No. I dislike Vista. My operating system is Windows XP. THe recovery disc reads Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition. Includes Service Pack 2. Version 2002.Then continue with the XP install and see if it detects the drive,
If not you may have to pull the drive and set it up as a slave in another machine to run chkdsk /r.
Have you considered a new drive ? ?Well see, thats the thing.  This isn't some old pc thats been sitting in my grandma's basement, this is new, like no  more than a year old.  I never had problems with it, it was increadibly fast, top of the line graphics card, home built by my best friend's father.  I run the disc, and thats where i hit the roadblock.

The only three options it gives me is to A) Repair, B) Install XP, and C) Quit Program. When i run the first two, it gives me the same screen basically telling me that i dont have a hard drive installed in the computer.  Obviously there is, its connected properly, but the setup disc tells me otherwise.The AGE of the machine is irrelevant...if the HDD is having issues then they need to be addressed.
Double check all the connections once again and if it still is not detected you will have to use the procedure i outlined above.
I've seen drives fail 3 weeks after they came out of the box.If the machine is no more then a year old, is the hard Drive SATA?

if so, try changing the SATA option in your BIOS from "AHCI" to "compatibility"./////OK, i do not think the drive is SATA.  Ive gone into BIOS and there is no mention of SATA. I can enter setup, and for some strange reason, it gives me the option to f8 system configuration, but when i press it, nothing happens.  I can press f9 for BOOT menu.  DEL for setup. But no f8 command.

/////Still, i couldnt do perform the AHCI to compatability switch as you instructed for a SATA drive, so i do not think it applies.  That is where i stand RIGHT now.  Any other ideas?