We had a power outtage and my computer shutdown. When it booted up it just started making a clicking noise and asks to install a boot disk. When I went into setup it doesn't show that there is a hard drive. How do I get it to find the hard drive or is it a lost cause?

Sometimes a power outage event produces power spikes or surges that can damage things. I'm assuming you have a desktop computer. That often damages the power supply. If the power supply is no longer working properly, the hard drive may not be detected. Go into your bios Setup and find the current voltage readings - e.g. they're often listed under Hardware Monitor or similar. If what is supposed to be +5v and/or +12v is not within 10% of the nominal value, replace the power supply. Check your PS. See response 4 in this: http://www.computing.net/hardware/w... If in doubt, if you can borrow another power supply from a working computer, try connecting that. A power outage event can damage anything connected to the mboard, or the mboard, but usually it doesn't damage the drives or the cpu or the ram. You can try the hard drive connected to another computer as slave, or as master, as long as you don't try booting from it - it is normal for XP to refuse to load Windows if the other mboard is more than a little different from yours. Trying ram that was in your mboard on another one is only a valid test if both mboards are compatible with the particular ram module(s). If the ram works in the other mboard that does prove there's nothing wrong with it, but if it doesn't work in the other mboard that doesn't necessarily prove it's "bad". .... Sometimes a power outageevent can cause a poor connection inside your case somewhere. Unplug the case/power supply. Power off your monitor. Open up the case by removing the left panel as seen when you're looking at the front of the case. Check all the connections of the wiring to make sure they are all the way onto their pins and into their sockets, especially the main connector from the power supply. The wires close to the mboard going into the main power connector/socket should be more or less perpendicular to the mboard surface rather than at an angle. Make sure all cards in slots are all the way down in their slots.