student working on old computer that doesn't read hard drive

[[email protected]]

I am currently attending college for IT and have an old Gateway to work on to learn.  At first it wouldn't boot at all.  I went into setup and reset to defaults and now it says it doesn't recognize the hard drive.  I got it to go through all of the POST tests and come up with a screen that has information but I'm not sure what all of it means.  My textobook is no help.  How do I know if my hard drive is bad and what type it is?  I have no documentation or discs to work with.  I need all the help I can get because I really want to learn how to do this.  Any help is appreciated.

Darlene Sage

[Geek-9pm]

Try and see if the floppy drive will attempt to boot a any floppy.

[Computer_Commando]

...How do I know if my hard drive is bad and what type it is? ...

Can you hear it spinning when you power up the computer?
Remove it and read the label.  Look it up on the drive manufacturer's website.
As for Setup not recognizing it, that comes later.

[JJ 3000]

Check your jumper settings. Try a different IDE ribbon.

[JJ 3000]

My textbook is no help. 

Check out the videos here
http://www.professormesser.com/2008/03/15/professor-messers-free-comptia-a-certification-training-course/