Tim Seaton's post (clipped)

<<<  but almost positive it was nothing more than the internet (IE)>>>>

Hi Tim, very good morning. my own opinion is that during that surfing some site has caused this problem. one year old computers do not crash abruptly unless something goes drastically wrong. because of the crash you are not in a position to scan with antivirus/antispyware programs. on the face of it it appears  you have lost the hdd controllers/ cdrom drivers etc. do you have the motherboard install cd/ manual, and do you know the make/model of your hdd/cdrom. if so post the details to the list and I am pretty sure some solution will emerge.

very good luck---Venkat

PS:

reading your first post a second time...<<< Upon striking F2, I am 
taken to the Setup Utility as described. >>>

is this setup utility your bios or something else? because if it is your bios then <<<<< Everything looks normal except under the boot sequence,>>>

one will have to assume that in the main menu of the bios your hdd and cdrom is showing up.

again if it is your bios then

<<<< under the boot sequence, which reads as follows:
   
       1. Hard Disk Drive (not installed)
       2. CD-Rom Device (not installed)
       3. Diskette Drive >>>>>

is not clear because i do not know of any bios which shows whether the devices are installed or not. they only list the devices.

since you do not seem to have a second pc i would suggest that you locate a friend who will let you connect your hdd/cdrom as slaves and see if they show up in the bios. all hdd manufacturers have utilities for testing/scanning their products but the trouble is whether they will fit in a floppy which seems to be the only device working in your system.

so pl do post some info on the above.

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