boot failure- hdd fail

Hello there...great site,here is my problem.

I have an older Daewoo computer with windows xp. when i started my computer yesterday this is what happened.
a blue screen appeared and said the following:A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. Problem seems to be caused by partmgr.sys
page fault in non page area.

when i restart the computer, well it is in the start up sequence. it freezes up and says:
boot failure insert boot diskette in A:
when i try and reboot the system by using the windows xp setup disk, it once again takes me back to the blue screen that states the "a problem has been detected" message.
I have tried to enter the bios mode but am unable. this is the first time i have never been able to enter the bios mode while starting. I have tried all of the f keys and also the del key, but with no success.
How do you, or is there another way to get into the bios mode. my other computer enters bios with the f8 key.or is this not going to help me with this problem?
is my hard drive shot? when the problem 1st occured, it sounded like the hard drive was making a clicking or skipping sound. Thats when the blue screen first popped up.
Oh yea, and when i first start the computer the initial message is:
pri master hdd error
run setup
press f1 to resume.

I am pulling my hair out here.....any help would be greatly appreciated