Cannot detect hard drive when trying to format the computer while booting

Go into BIOS and change the boot order to CD, then HD, and so on. Just remove floppy from being first.

Plus make sure BIOS does recognize hard drive so it boots and gets rid of the no boot device.

You need to re enter system setup Press Del and change boot device order to floppy, CD/DVD and Hard Disk

Worldvet

Does the hard drive show up on your boot order? because if no detection is indicated that would explain why it is not working. Check out my computer to see if C Drive is present, check device manager that it is enabled.

Follow these steps and ia sure you will be able to boot by yourself:-
1)Change the BIOS boot order so the CD or DVD drive is listed first. Some computers are already configured this way but many are not.
2)If the CD or DVD drive is not first in the boot order, your PC will start "normally" (i.e. boot from your hard drive) without even looking at what might be in your disc drive.
3)Insert your bootable CD or bootable DVD in your disc drive.
4)Restart your computer.
5)Watch for a Press any key to boot from CD or DVD... message.
6)When booting to a Windows setup CD/DVD and many other bootable discs, you may be prompted with a message to press a key to boot to the disc. To boot to the CD or DVD, you'll need to press any key on your keyboard (like the space bar) within the few seconds that the message is on the screen.
7)If you do nothing, your computer will check for boot information on the next boot device in the list in BIOS which will probably be your hard drive.
8)Some bootable CDs and DVDs do not prompt for a key press and will start immediately.
Your computer should now boot from the CD or DVD disc.

A POST diags card can help you resolve your problem/s, if not then.
1. remove all devices and insert the floppy drive, one RAM module and video card.
2. Go into the BIOS configuration and set it to the default configuration, check the installed RAM is it correct? .
3. Insert the remainder RAM module/s and check the POST info and BIOS again, has it detected all the RAM?
4. Does the computer Boot up using a floppy boot disk
5. Insert the CD and hard disk and check the POST info and BIOS configuration, does it detect the new drives?
6. Does the computer Boot up using a floppy boot disk, run FDISK, can you see the hard drive, if so delete all partitions (if any) and create a new primary DOS partition and then format the hard drive.
7. Boot up with the Windows CD (may have to change the boot order to the CD as the first boot device).
8. Delete the DOS partition, create a primary NTFS partition and the do a full NTFS format (not a quick format) and continue to install Windows Xp or Vista.
9. Install the other device eg modem, Lan etc. and the drivers.

If you have trouble with the first 5 steps, then you most likely have a faulty motherboard and/or a faulty hard disk.

CHeck the jumper settings of the hard drive...

is it detecting on BIOS>.

hi im josh in cebu phils.may i help you? friend try to do this things. first i suggest to change new ide or sata cable.if still persist.try the following:
Boot order: Traditionally, a computer is set to boot first from the floppy drive, and then from the main hard drive (Drive C). This means that the computer will check the floppy drive first for boot files. If there is no disk in the floppy drive, the computer will then go to the hard drive to look for boot files. That is why if you leave a non-bootable floppy disk in the drive and try to boot up, you'll get an error message such as "NTLDR is missing. Press any key to restart." or "Non-system disk or disk error." This can be changed to pretty much any order, including CD and DVD drives. It is useful when installing Windows on a new or just-formatted computer to set the computer to boot first from a CD-ROM drive, and then insert the Windows installation CD-ROM into that drive. This saves you from having to use boot floppies that might or might not come with the Windows CD-ROM. Good luck.

open your bios setup and check the cd rom is recognized and check the boot priority is set to allow to boot from the cd rom first.

Try pressing F12 at startup, you should get a boot option.

After format your computer will not boot if don't have the Sys files on it. Try to put your hard drive back to your computer and start booting with some cd with hard drive utilities like http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/