Inspiron 1525 Says There Was No Hard Drive In It! Help!

Had my Inspiron for 7 months with no issues till last night.  I left it on (was surfing the net as usual)and when I came back it was frozen...there was no mouse pointer and the touch pad felt hot.  After a few seconds a black screen came up telling me that there was no hard drive!  Tried to scan but it came back with the same message with an awful lot of beeping!  Anyone else had this issue and is there anyone that can tell me what's wrong?  Please.  Thank you in advance.