Advent Lap Top please, money, Vista

apple

Hi my son has a Advent lap top [ That he didn't bother to make back up disk for ] that  won't boot up all he gets is quot;No operating systemquot; the original OPS was Vista Premium however being a 20 something he has no money to buy the restoration disk,so tried his sisters XP disk.But when they tried to install  it it said that there was no hard drive.Never having fitted a hard drive of any kind can someone please give me some advice on fitting one and then probably using the XP disk installing and reformatting.                    
      

Stop,dont do anything more.I dont know if youve totally messed it up now.Im away to work,hopefully someone with more time can help,but i have an advent laptop recovery disc but for XP,if no better solution comes                    
      

I suspect the Hard Drive connection has become loose, this is not uncommon.  Just a case of removing the HDD and refitting and all should be well.
This assumes the HDD hasnt terminally failed of course.
and dont put that XP CD anywhere near it!!!                    
      

Thanks guys he now says doesn't know if its still in warranty but has lost receipt,I started to remove screws from bottom to look at HDD [I presume this means hard drive ] but it looks like i would have to price cover up and it could mark it and as he is expecting me to return it on the off chance they have it on record that the warranty is still valid i will leave it for now but if i don't get any joy I'll get back to you.
IF YOU DON'T HAVE KIDS DON'T HAVE ANY THERE A PAIN IN THE ARSE.                    
      

CORRECT FOUR AND BLOODY BOYFRENDS ALL GONE THANK THE LORD                    
      

Removing the HDD bay cover and removing / refitting the HDD will not invalidate the warranty, there is no security sticker over the sides of the cover plate to worry about is there? there isnt normally

some covers just slide and snap into place, some are secured with a screw and lift up or slide off.TIP for all: to 'safely' security stickers, or any sticker for that matter, warm them up with a hair dryer, use a sharp blade to pry a corner up, keep the heat going ans gently pry the sticker off, place on waxed paper to stop the glue from drying or fluff getting on it, when ready to re-stick, warm it up again and stick it on, place a weighted object on it for 10 minutes, job's a good'un :^0