PC won't startup

[PiQ]

I'm a true beginner to the tech side of computers. I have PC
CPU 900
Ram 1024
Hard Drive Primary 80 Gig
                Secondary 20 Gig
OS Windows XP
Initially I had the 20 Gig running win 2000. I had the 80 Gig installed and went to XP. Since then the system has slowed considerably. Even the basic drop down menus in WORD e.g. Copy, Paste etc I have to wait some time for it to come up.
Then things got worst, I no longer could see the Secondary drive, It takes a year of Sundays to Boot up. Then a couple of days ago it didn't come at all. nothing on the monitor (Monitor fine)
The Hard Drives sound as if they are spinning, the CPU light is on steadily not blinking, I tried it a few minutes ago and a few characters came up on the monitor with a blinking (fast) cursor. Do I just chuck it out? I trust my gibberish isn't worse than I'm seeing on the monitor
I have no boot up discs.

[patio]

You need to be more clear on what's happening here...
Do you still have Win2K and XP installed ? ? If so what is your primary OS ?
2nd How much free space is on each drive ?
3Rd when is the lst time you did the maintenence...IE Disk cleanup/defrag/AV scans etc ? ?

[PiQ]

Thanks patio:
Win 2K was removed from the 20 Gig and the drive reformatted
XP is my primary OS and is installed on the 80Gig
Hard Drive free space on both drives was at least 80% ea. to the best of my knowledge.
(remember I can't access that info now) 
I did the maintenance processes about a week after it came back from the shop.

I now notice that the keyboard lights don't come on either.

[Allan]

Please answer ALL of these questions:

You have two hd's with one OS - XP. Is that correct? When you boot it goes directly to the XP installation?

Everything was okay but then you did "the maintenance processes". What does that mean? What EXACTLY did you do?

Why was it in the shop?

Who installed the new OS - you or "the shop"?

Do you have a good anti virus utility installed and active?

[PiQ]

Thanks Allan:
Yes that is correct, I have 2 Hard Drives with one OS - XP
Yes it goes directly to the XP installation.
The Maintenance processes I alluded to was in reference to "patio's" question
( after I had re-loaded a number of programmes I had before I did IE Windows disc cleanup, 
  Defrag, AV Scans, Registry cleanup etc.)
It went to the shop to have the new drive installed (ie 80Gig) and
the OS was also installed at the shop.
I run the free version AVG anti virus and it is active.