Computer won't boot up

[justjeannie]

I have a dimension 2400 Dell with xp, all was fine until this morning. I turned the computer on and only got a blank screen with the following messages:
Diskette Drive 0 seek failure
Primary Drive 0 not found
Primary Drive 1 not found
Strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility .

The only thing I know is last night, windows did update automatically and that’s the last time it was ok.
I don’t have any of my cds that would have came with the Dell since they are in storage in another state, since I just moved.
I tried to use the Norton utility disc and got it to run by hitting F1, and it gave me 2 choices, to boot from the hard disc or boot from the CD Rom, and it came up and did a scan but it could not find any files for the primary disc. And it only scanned the memory. Then it went to the A prompt?
So then I tried to change it to the C prompt but it kept saying error.
Can anyone help or is it toast? Thanks for any help!!

[Europa]

These messages indicate that the BIOS has not found your hard drive or floppy disk drive during the POST (Power on Self Test) which happens every time you boot up. One cause could be a loose connection inside the PC. Turn power off and try opening the case and checking that all connectors in the back of the hard drive are firmly seated, also check that the cable connecting from the HD to the motherboard is firmly pushed in. Make sure you wear an anti static wrist strap or ground yourself by touching metal to avoid static damage to components.

[baklogic]

Europa gives some good advice. Whenever something like this happens, it is worth checking. DO follow the advice to ensure you are grounded, wriststrap is usually best, otherwise, make sure it is unplugged, and touch an earth - like an unpaited part of a service pipe, or, radiator, and keep touching case , before touching anything inside the computer.
Sometimes automatic update does this, and I believe it is an interrupted, or, corrupted file download that causes it.- Have you had a local storm ? , and was your set plugged in overnight, even if switched off, a storm can kill some parts inside the computer, unless you have a surge protector.

If you can get on the net, and you have your Windows key, you can download a set of 6 floppy drive installation for XP, if you are running XP, and reload Xp.I believe this is available for other operating systems, but it is a while since I went to it.
Unfortunately , you will most likely lose any other data, and some drivers.