Hello

You must enter your bios. If your hard drive in not listed in your bios than there are a couple things you need to check.
1. make sure your data cable is connected correctly.
2 make sure the power cable is connected correcty to the drive

If your bios still does not see your hard drive & the drive is an IDE re-check the jumper settings are correct.
3. Find the maker's name of the drive. Write down it's serial No#. Go to their web site & download their hard drive utility software. Read the instructions on how to creat a bootable floppy disk so you can test the drive. If any of the test fail & the drive is warranted. Have it replaced. Keep a recoard of the test results to give to the Mfg.

Hi bezi,
Chances are your hard drive has failed. Your Dell came with a 40GB ATA/100 hard drive. You can use a local store near you to buy a replacement or you can use an on-line store to replace your drive. If you are not that familiar with the interior of your computer I suggest you leave your current hard drive installed until you get a new hard drive.
I'll list a link or two below where you can buy on-line a compatible new hard drive for your Dell.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/search.asp?cat=522&keywords=seagate&mnf=
I choose Seagate because they carry a five year waranty. This site does not carry a smaller size other than the 80GB drive.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=117013
This site shows the same drive & size for less.

Once you replace your old drive, just put either your restore CD into your cdrom or your windows CD into the cdrom & install your XP Home edition that came with the Dell.

If you have any more question or need help with anything just post back here & I'll help you out.

Thanks for using FixYa.
Have a good day!