I have a HP desktop with XP home. The computer sat unplugged and off in a closet for a few months.

I did not change or do anything to the computer, but when I turned it back on recently, it said something like please insert or locate proper boot disk.

I have tried a few windows installation cd's, but they are always unable to identify or locate the C hard drive.

Can someone please help me with how to get it working again, because I have some files on there that I would like to retrieve before throwing it off of a bridge out of frustration.

Thank you.

try testing the drive using a diagnostic util for hard drive that can be downloaded from manufacturer's site, but if the drive is not seen in Bios then
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm
then it will be expensive to retrieve data

Cudni