Are you sure it is your hard drive.... is the IDE/SATA cable ok?... Is the IDE/SATA on the mainboard working properly... Had a drive go bad at work on my inkjet and it actually wasn't the hard drive but the Primary IDE on the board is what went bad. The hard drive was ok. Make sure you check everything before you give up on your hard drive. Also like Folypro said... check your CMOS and see if your BIOS is detecting the drive or not.

There are 10 kinds of people: Those who know binary, and those who don't. 

A whiner is about as useful as a one-legged man at an arse kicking contest.