when i start my computer, it shows me black screen and a message'' Operating system not found''. then i have to press f8 for many times n then windows starts, but its too slow n sometimes it hangs too. I want to install win xp pro on it but it cant find any hard drive on my comp. In BIOS It shows NONE in front of primary master n primary slave, though I have both primary master n slave. I have checked jumpers n cables. they r all fine. plzz help me!

If you feel comfortable opening the case, do that. Check all cables, making sure they are secure. If they are, it's possible the drive just died. That indeed does happen sometimes. If you don't feel comfortable opening the case, ask around and see if your friends/family know someone who works with computers as a profession..and will work on the side, rather than taking it to a shop. It'll cost you less money that way. Soylent Green is PEOPLE!!!

I did open the case and checked all the cables n jumper. they r fine, but i was thinking that is it possible that both hard drive r dead? bios cant recognize both hard drive as master or slave. I can see hard drive on windows but cant in bios setup. If the hard drive is dead, it shudnt work at all, isnt it?

If you can't see the HDD in the BIOS, then Windows won't see them, and the machine won't boot. You should check the jumpers again and make sure they are set properly. Soylent Green is PEOPLE!!!

If you have it set to none in the bios it will not show. Change it sot AUTO or specify the size/heads/etc manually.

I have checked jumpers so many times, they r ok, and its not set to none; it is set to auto; i cant understand why system boots when bios cant see any hard disk on comp? first it shows that operating system not found but then u restart comp and press F8 key many times then windows start. but i m so confused. Is it possible that hard disk is dead???

Well it is WinME afterall so being buggy is expected. If you are able to get to the bios, change the boot order to boot to CD and boot off of your xp cd and run the upgrade. bear in mind that if you have any type of RAID config you'll need to hit F6 at the beginning to load the driver for a mass storage conroller.