different laptop whole new problem!!!!

hello 2 laptops mess up in one week what kind of irony is this...but heres the problem with this laptop

computer was working fine when i got home this afternoon, i play red faction frpm about 3:30 to say 5:30. my mom askes me to go get some food and i go. when i got back i watched a movie till about 8:50 when i come back to my room i have the blue screen of death showing. so i reboot the computer

when i reboot, i get a blank screen that says:

"Primary hard disk drive not found"
:Fixed optical drive not found"

it sits trhere for several seconds then says:

"No bootable devices--strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility"

i hit F1 and the message above shows again, so i hit F2 and take a look at my settings.

everything looks fine untill i get to:

"primary hard drive: None"
"Diskette drive A: Not Installed"
"Diskette drive B: Not Installed"
"Modular Bay: Not Installed"
"Fixed Optical Drive: Not Installed"

i dont think i ever had the diskette drives installed so im not worried about those.

i guess the main question is.. what happened in the 3 hrs i was away from the pc to cause my hd to die/uninstall itself, was it an overheat which i doubt or what?

other computer info u should know:

the computer is abouyt 4 years old
512 ram
mobile pentium 4 1,70 ghz
30 gig hd

i tghink thats everything

 

IDE controller failure is what I am guessing.

 

Yea check that the ide cable hasn;t come loose and if try replacing it, if that doesn't work then it sounds like a fatal prblem with the motherboard.