Hard drive error

[kprt]

I am trying to learn about computers and I have a computer that I use for testing things out and tinkering with. I powered on the system today and got an error, don't remember what it said. I found that the molex plug had came out of the hard drive. I plugged it back in and now when I boot the system I get a blank screen with "non-system disk or disk error replace and press any key". Everything looks good in the bios, during the POST the drive is listed. Any ideas? Thanks

[Fruss Tray Ted]

If the drive is fine, it sounds like it is 'clean'. Or formatted etc.. It will need an operating system installed onto it.

[kprt]

I already had XP on it.

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Is your boot order to floppy or cd first? And if so, is there a floppy or cd in either drive?

[kprt]

No floppy drive installed and no cd in the cd drive, the hard drive is first.

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Check your data cable's connections by pulling and reconnecting them.

Determine what kind of drive it is, download the manufacturer's utility for testing the drive, make a cd of it and boot to it to test the drive's integrity. Do you have any recovery disks or XP? Is this a brand name pc?