Troubleshooting 3 year old Dell Dimension

[Calum]

Hi all.
My friend has a problem PC he asked me to have a look at.
It's a 3 year old Dell Dimension with XP Home (I think), not sure of the model number.
It starts to boot, and then says "Primary device not found, press F1 to continue or F2 to do something else" (can't remember exactly what it said because I literally was with the PC for 1 minute).
I pressed F1, and it then gives me the screen where you can choose safe mode, last known good config, and so on.
I chose Safe Mode, and it blue screened, UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME.
Any ideas?
I think this means the hard drive is dead, but I'm not sure.
I can get a little more info if needed, but it won't boot so don't ask me to right click or anything lol.
Thanks in advance.
Calum.

[panboy]

Yep those error point to a problem with the HDD, But before you go out ad buy a new one check all the cables and make sure there not the fault, some times another faulty device on the same cable can case a problem so disconnect the CD ROM if its on the Same cable and try again

ill be going off line now , some one else might give you further instructions

[Calum]

Thanks, I'll check the cables too when I get time.
That was going to be the next thing I did, but I won't be able to do it soon because it's not my PC and my friend won't know what to do, even if I tell him.