non system disk

Clarifications

1) Is there a cd in the drive or a floppy disk in the drive? (remove if yes)
2) Is your bios set to boot from the HD first? (set to primary hard drive as first boot device for testing).
3) Is the cable between your hard drive and motherboard loose? (If you have a spare, replacing the cable is a good idea.)
4) Do you have a boot able cd or floppy to test your system with? (UBCD is a good option). http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

The cables inside the case, IDE to drive and to Motherboard, as well as the power connectors.
Enter BIOS and verify that the drive is seen there.

Use the HDD Makers Testing Utility to test the HDD. If it fails you need to replace the HDD or M'Board. If you don't know the make of the HDD you can use Sea Tools to test the drive but the Makers Testing Utility would be better.

http://tinyurl.com/yvq99t

The Ultimate Boot CD has most Drive Makers Testing Utilities on it

http://tinyurl.com/3jnpy

If it passes you may need to reload W2K to get it working again. If you have a M$ W2K Install Disc not the Toshiba one you can do a repair Install of Windows but if you only have the Toshiba Disc this will not be an Option.

You could also run the computer off a Live Linux CD which runs off the CD and doesn't affect any installed OS or Software to check to see if the drive is showing up when the Linux is running. If the drive hasn't failed it may have become corrupt and lost the Master Boot Records. There is a list & kinks to Downloadable Live Linux's here

http://tinyurl.com/23nmq

There are 2 other possible things to use as well the Emergency Boot CD available here

http://tinyurl.com/2q6n95

Or the System Rescue CD

http://tinyurl.com/2wyn9g

Col