Computer boots up and as soon the hard drive light starts to flash it loses power and cuts off......

If you are computer savvy, remove the memory sticks and hard drive, fit a new backup cell and power it on empty.
If it loads to no OS on screen, add memory and check again.
If it now fails, replace the memory otherwise fit the hard drive and repeat the test.
That will let you know which way to go about repairing.

Good day Ken Markham
If your "Default Boot Device" is your hard drive and it is missing, then your machine will not start, you may need to have a technical person look on your machine for you.

Are you powering on your computer and your monitor...

If your computer appears to boot, but nothing on your monitor...
Here's some tricks I would try. Something here, might help...
1. Verify the monitor's power cord is plugged firmly into the wall outlet and the back of the monitor.
2. Verify the monitor cable is firmly connected to the computer and the monitor.
3. Verify that you have turned the monitor power switch on.
4. If the power light on the monitor is not on, test the wall outlet (plug in a light or something you know works).
5. If the power light on the monitor is not on, try a different power cord.
6. If the power light is on and yellow or orange or flashing, but nothing displays, or the display is incorrect, borrow a monitor from a friend. If that works, your monitor probably needs replaced.
7. Also, you could try your monitor on a friend's computer. If it doesn't work, your monitor probably needs replaced. If it works properly on your friends computer, the problem may be with your computers video output port, motherboard video chip (or video card, if you have one), or drivers.
Good luck.

If your computer won't boot...
The hard drive, motherboard, or some other critical component may be failing, or just the OS or hard drive corrupted. If you have files that you do not want to lose, you could try this... Pull the hard drive out, and use a "USB Hard Drive Adapter" (available fairly cheap online) to connect the hard drive to a friend's computer, and save all the personal files (documents, pictures, etc.) you can to a folder on the friend's computer or an external hard drive. That way, at least you may not lose your files.
Then, you could try to do a Factory Restore or Reload on the computer, and if that works, copy your personal files back to your newly restored computer. Good luck.

Your computer can't find the OS on your hard drive. Most likely the boot sector has been damaged (or someone reformatted the drive). The entire hard disc may have failed.

Since this is a netbook, you will either need an external optical drive (USB) and a copy of the OS to boot from or a USB flash drive that has been prepared as a boot version of the OS. HP offers the Mini 5101 with WinXP Home, SUSE Linux or FreeDos. There may be newer versions with other OS options. Make sure to get the correct OS, even if you upgraded it.

You will need to boot to the optical drive or the flash drive. On other computers, this may involve accessing the BIOS to change the boot order. Look for a splash screen with the key information. Then turn off the computer and turn it back on while repeatedly pressing the key. (F1, Esc, Del, and F10 are common keys.) If you miss the timing, turn off the computer and try again.

If you are using XP, you will need to enter the Recovery Console. Then enter the command line mode. If your command prompt starts with any character other than C. Type C: then press Enter. Next type CD WINDOWS. Then try the BOOTCFG /REBUILD and see if a Windows OS is found. (type the command in and then press enter). Then type in the command FIXBOOT. This repairs the boot sector. You will need to confirm the commands. Type CD .. and CHKDSK /R /F to check for and fix damaged hard drive areas

If this worked, type EXIT. Try rebooting the computer. Otherwise use the command FIXMBR and then exit. Enter the HP recovery program (on the original hard disc or on Recovery discs, if you made them). Restore the computer to the original configuration with that program. If you ever did anything to repartition the hard drive, the recovery partition may not be accessible. You will lose any stored files and need to reinstall any programs you added to the netbook.

I hope this helps. Please note: losing this part of the hard drive may indicate that you have a failing hard disc. You will need to decide if you want to replace the drive or the netbook. If you decide to replace the hard drive, match the original drive size and data/power specifications (2.5" drive and SATA cable, probably). Use a USB/SATA/IDE hard drive adapter and a cloning software either added to the hard drive or from an optical disc to transfer the OS to the new drive and then set it as the boot drive before installing it in the netbook.

Cindy Wells

I'd recommend that you use some data recovery program

Most likey yes. If you have been using the thumb drive frequesntly and with large volumes of data or as a live boot USB then yes. As these devices are used they can wear out just like a hard drive. These devices though are not built to handle it as well as a hard drive. You could say they are a lot like VHS and cassette tapes.

Try removing the Hard Drive and see if it boots up with an error saying it can't find a hard drive or bootable partition.

First Make sure to Remove all external devices and media. Be sure to check the optical drive, flash memory slot and try once again to boot to BIOS by tapping f10 make sure you start tapping the f10 key as soon as you power on the NB if boot to BIOS then do a BIOS default by pressing f9 and then f10 to restart the NB press enter if prompted

check if the issue is resolved or if you not able to get into BIOS by f10 then run the Hard drive test from Diagnostics then is F2
power on the NB tap f2 to boot to Diagnostics and run self test for hard drive and if the fails then hard drive needs to be replaced or if the test passes and still issue is not resolved

then Re-Seat the Memories on then if still issue not resolved

then try F11 recovery this will format the Hard drive an install the fresh copy if operating system still same issue or unable to run recovery then contact manufacturer

sounds like something is drawing down on your 12 volt supply drives or on board regulators. Try it without the drives connectged, and see if you can get the system to boot up(you'll just get a notice that your drives are unavailable, but you'll already know that, right?

got backup for your Dell?

For problem #1 there is a MBR (Master Boot Record) problem, meaning that Windows is unable to find Windows. This can either be a software problem or a hard disk failure. If you have your Windows XP disc boot up with it in your cd drive and when it starts press 'R' for repair as this wil repair system files and you will not lose any settings or doc's. When you are running go to your hard disk drive manufacturer and run a diagnosis and repair if neccassary. Problem #2 should sort itself out if left unplugged from the mains supply and the power supply unit for 15 mins or so. If not there is a power supply that needs replacing.