Need immediate help please. I screwed up computer.

[Horse with no Name]

Computer started screaming.
I don't know what the deal was, so I opened it up (first mistake).
Anyway, I ended up unplugging the hard disk drive.
I plugged it back in and when I booted up, it said hard drive error and to insert system disk.
What is a system disk and how do I fix this.
Thanks for help.

[RoyGBiv]

1. Umm ...

Did you unplug it while the power was still on?

It's asking for the disk that holds your operating system. This means something got fried.

Based on the "screaming," I suspect you just experienced a very noisy drive crash.

[welshTerrier2]

2. yikes ...

ok ... first, calm down ... you might be better off not messing with your computer any further ...

second, it seems like your system cannot read the operating system from your hard drive ... a system disk is simply a disk that has a copy of the operating system on it ... if you had such a disk on a floppy or on a cd, you could insert it and your system might boot up ... however, it probably wouldn't help you much because it doesn't sound like your hard drive is functioning ...

there have been numerous threads in this forum about recovering data from bad hard drives ... if the drive is still functioning, data recovery costs aren't too bad ... if the drive is not functioning (even if it's moved to another computer), data recovery can be expensive ...

you could try to unplug and reconnect the drive but from the screaming noises, it sounds like it probably is defective ...

i'd start shopping for computer repair services or data recovery services ... i don't suppose your computer is still under warranty??

good luck ... i know it's a drag ...

[Horse with no Name]

3. Follow up

I was able to get it booted back up....after several hours.
However, when I position the hard drive back in its slot--it doesn't work.
So, right now--at least until tomorrow--I am leaving it all open.
Thanks for all the help.
I am not sure what actually worked...probably a combination of all of the above.
Thanks again.
:)

[RazzleCat]

4. fix the boot

If the physical disk is still OK (if it truly made noise, I doubt it). You may have lost the director that tells your system where to find its OS. Not knowing your Operating System, I can't give you exact key strokes, so here is the basic cmd. At the C prompt run fix mbr (goggle this cmd to see the variations for different OS's). If the hard disk is still intact, this could get you back in business. One other note, even if the disk is intact, if it made lots of noise you should plan on replacing it ASAP, just keep it running long enough to copy the data over to a new disk.

[Horse with no Name]

5. Thank you.

Will do that.