"No bootable image found, notebook will be shutdown" error

Hi all,

I had a major issue with my HP Probook 4540s and am hoping I can find a solution through this forum.

I was working on my laptop and it started making strange sounds. This wasn't the regular sound of the fan but almost as if there was a short circuit. I shut down the laptop for a bit and turned it on again. This time, the system would just not boot, I keep getting the error "No bootable image found, notebook will be shutdown." I tried going into the start up menu to find a solution but don't really know what to do. Also, there is no option anywhere to enter the system in safe mode, I tried pressing f8 repeatedly but that didn't help. Moreover, I tried to perform a hard disk check from the system configuration options and am getting a message saying "not installed"

I had inserted a cd a couple of hours before which I had to copy items from. I double checked later to see if the cd was infected and it wasn't (I used avg to scan it on another computer).

Clearly this seems to be a hard drive issue. Anyone had a similar issue and know how to troubleshoot? Will I have to reformat my computer and lose all data?

Help!