Would appreciate any insight on this..

I have a hp a350n pavillon pent 4....

The computer was doing a defrag then it turned off and when it came back
on the screen said Reboot and select proper Boot Device or Insert Boot Media
in selected boot device and press key....

I never had this happen before..
I pressed ctrl alt delete and the cpu rebooted and up came the hp blue screen
with F1 setup and F10 system ..
The F10 would not work only the F1 would bring me into another blue screen..
On the blue screen you could arrow down and make changes..
This is the info it showed..
First Channel Master..................None
First Channel Slave....................None
Second Channel Master.............HP DVD Writer
Second Channel Slave...............CD-S480/aH
Third Channel Master .................None
Fourth Channel Master..............None
Memory......................................512 MB
MemoryBank..............................0256MB/DDRSDRAM
Bank 1 ......................................Not installed
Bank 2.......................................256 MB/DDRSDRAM
Bank 3.......................................Not installed
Core Version.............................08.00.09
Bios Revision............................ 3.15 10/06/03...

this is all it showed...
Then you can press F10 so it will reboot....
Tried just pressing F10 because I didn't know if I should change any
of these settings..
Then the screen comes back up with the same
Message............Reboot and Select Proper Boot Device or insert Boot media
in selected Boot Device and press key...

I cannot get pass this screen ....
Should I use a windows XP Windows Boot Disk?
Please I would appreciate any info anyone could provide me on this..

Thanks

Tia

with HP machines, F1 gives you the setup option.

From the look of what you've written, the hard drive that had windows installed isn't being found by the bios anymore, which is kind of bad.

If you're feeling game, I suggest opening up your computer (should be a latch on the side, or a couple of screws on the back, and make sure the cables are plugged in correctly.

If not, find a friend who is comfortable, or take it to your local computer shop. The hard drive should be fine with all your data and everything, doing a defrag doesn't endanger anything in your computer, and cutting it short doesn't really do anything except keep your computer running the way it was before, maybe a tiny bit slower as it was half way through reorganising files.