Dimension 8250 Not recognizing hard drive

Forgive the length, but I'm hoping but putting all the details out there, I can finally resolve the issue.

My dimensino 8250 gave an error message of keyboard failure awhile back.  I finally got it to boot to the window where I could choose safe mode, normal start, etc. but no matter what option I chose, it would not go past this screen.  I finally decided to wipe the HD but before doing so, took it in to the shop to get the data off it (it was just faster to have someone else do it).

Now I'm trying to wipe the HD and do a fresh install of Win XP.  Upon start up, get the error message that the battery might be low.  Switched out with a different battery, reset BIOS time.  I noticed that the Primary drive was set for Off, so set to Auto.  States that the HD is unknown device.  Secondary drive 0 and 1 are both CD-Rom.  After retrying the boot, I get strike F1 to retry boot, F2 to setup.  I can get to the boot device menu using F12 and have the option for normal, diskette and CD-Rom.  Try CD-rom and get keyboard failure error.  Tried IDE Drive Diagnostics which says Primary IDE 0 and 1 no IDE device.  Secondary IDE 0 and 1 lists the two CD-rom drives I have installed on this machine. No IDE hard drives installed, press any key to continue.

Thought maybe the HD was bad, so tried in a different machine and got to the initial problem of not being able to choose safe, normal, etc.  Tried fresh install using different machine and install hung on "Cannot install file drivers.cab" which indicates a possible memory problem.  Did f/disk and tried install again with same results. 

Put HD back in Dimension machine, swapped out the IDE cable with a working IDE cable, and tried install again.  No luck.  

So, currently, after I power on, I get the following:

2 quick beeps then these errors on the screen -  

Primary hard disk drive 0 not found;

primary hard disk drive 1 not found,

Alert! System battery voltage is low (already changed battery);

strike F1 to continue F2 to run setup.

Striking F1 gets to F1 to retry boot, F2 for set up and this message just loops after striking F1.

I'm at a loss as to what to do to get this machine back up and operational.  Any thoughts?