i called tonite to tech support because on starting my computer it says no hard drive found.

dell is sending me a new hard drive.first question is will an operation system already be installed along with all programs and drivers it came with when i purchased the computer 2 months ago.

2nd. could the problem also be with the motherboard instead of the hard drive?

3rd. the faq says to remove the optical drive and see if the problem persists. what is the optical drive?

4th the hard drive is making a loud clicking/tapping noise so is this a sign of a bad hard drive?

how do hard drives go bad if this is the case. can they overheat or what?

greg