Help I think my hard drive died

I was just surfing the internet several days ago when I shut down my computer and went out cruising. 2 hours later I went home and started up my computer and behold! I get the error message "Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM". So I insert my Alienware Recovery CD and it boots up fine and all until I get the dreaded blue screen with the error message,

"Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer.

Make sure any hard disk drives are powered on and properly connected to your computer, and that any disk-related hardware configuration is correct. This may involve runnings a manufacture-supplied diagnostic or setup program.

Setup cannot continue. To quit Setup, press F3"

What the fudge? After recieving this error message I downloaded one of Seagate's utilities which diagnosts hard drive problems. I ran the quick test and full test and it all checked out ok. I then ran the DST test and it reported one error. So I restart and booted up to bios. I ran the AUTO HDD-test but none of my hard drive's information showed up. Called up Alienware technical support and they will send me a new hard drive. I want to avoid installing a new drive since I have alot of files on my old one which I don't want to have to redownload all over again. Here are my computer specs.

Alienware Aurora
Asus A7N8X Deluxe
AMD Athlon Xp 2800+
1024mb DDR
Seagate Barricuda 120gb ATA HD (it says ATA on one paper and SCSI on another)
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb

Any help would be appreciated.

 

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Pardon my asking a simple question, but have you thoroughly checked connections. I got something similar quite often when using disk caddies which did not connect well.

 

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