Hard Disk Read Error on DOS startup

Hi guys!

 

Hope you can help:

 

When I boot up my dell inspiron 8200 laptop, it takes me to a screen where it says "Hard disk read failure - No bootable devices -- strike F1 to retry boot. F2 for setup utility."

 

When I tried to recover Windows using the Dell disk, it called the C:\ an unrecognised drive, or some such.

 

Having talked to a couple people, and looking through the forum it seems likely my HDD has become detached from the motherboard inside the case. I wasn't doing anything unusual. It earlier gave me a windows error message (the comp having shut down unexpectedly) and later came up with the above message having been left on standby.

 

Any Ideas?