Can't restore

[cattalaya]

Hello, I am new here, so please have patience.
Our laptop Compaq Presario 1200TA, Win ME took a dive. For whatever reason it is not booting up/lets us restore.
I have contacted HP and after numerous e-mails back and forth, deleting partitions, and formatting the HD, following all the instructions, I am still stuck.
At first it was QuickRestore error 50:4, now it is just deader than a doorknob.
I have ordered brand new restore CD's, since my husband lost his in Iraq somewhere, but it will not work.
Now I am getting a black screen, after turning on the machine, and it the upper left hand corner it reads 'operating system not found'.
Still waiting on HP, but I thought here I could get some insight in what to do next.
Thx for info/suggenstions

[asa_sniper]

Howdy cattalaya,
The error you are getting may be because your BIOS does not know where to boot from..

Turn on the pc press esc ( i think for compaq) or del to get into BIOS look for a tab that says boot order. Make sure it has as Number 1 hard drive

[cattalaya]

Thx asa, but I went through that scenario, and made sure HD is in first position. Still nothing.
Sure could use some info