Another cause for this might be that the HD boot sector has been erased/damaged/replaced with an invalid one, or at least if your HD still has a boot sector [MBR (Master Boot Record)], it might not be recognized by the OS that is installed on your HD.
This sometimes happens in dual(multi)-boot environments using for example a 9x OS and an NTx OS, and if u try to reinstall/upgrade 1 OS or the other, and if there are any defective clusters on disk, and if u have not scandisk-ed your entire HD prior to (re)installing any OS.
What u can do:
- get a DOS mode boot floppy, like the ones made by MS Windows 95/98/ME.
- boot from the floppy, and then switch to the C:\ root prompt, to see if your HD drive letter is valid.
- if it is, run from the boot floppy:
FDISK /MBR
to try to fix the MBR. Reboot.
Or if using same OS build on your HD as the 1 on the boot floppy, run:
SYS A: C:
to copy system files [IO.SYS, COMMAND.COM, MSDOS.SYS] back to C:\ root if they were deleted/damaged + refresh the MBR. Reboot.
- if your HD letter is not available:
a. HD contains too many defective clusters and/or hardware defects beyond scandisk capacity of repair = may need HD replacement

b. hardware error. Hardware errors can be related to [examples]:
- BIOS being wiped out by a power surge or by extreme overclocking = in this case open computer case, reset default BIOS/CMOS settings jumper = look it up in your mobo manufacturer documents or online
- HD Master/Slave pins = see posts above
- HD power cable = make sure it's properly plugged in or replace if possible
- HD data cable = make sure it's properly plugged in or replace if possible
- worst case scenario: HD went "kaput" = need replacement.
More info + links:
http://www.mdgx.com/secrets.htm#FDPT
http://www.mdgx.com/drv.htm#CDR
http://www.mdgx.com/drv.htm#DRV
You can also ask or PM Petr, who is active in this Forum, and seems to know a lot about HDs:
http://www.msfn.org/...?showuser=52191
Hope this helps.