Presario 1722 won't start up

Hi,

I've got a problem with a Compaq Presario 1722 - it won't start
up.

I've had some problems with the power and it's just come
back from servicing and was sort of ok for a few weeks but when
I tried to start it yesterday it wouldn't boot. I don't want to lose it
for another six weeks while an engineer gets around to looking at it
and I can't even send it away unless I can kill confidential client info
off the hard drive.

Anyway. When I press the power button the power light comes on
and I think I can hear the drive spin up, but nothing else happens. I
don't get any flash of the keyboard lights (although I don't remember
if that ever happened before) and, more importantly, it doesn't boot
from the hard drive or from the floppy drive.

I'd like to know if there's a way to determine whether this is a failed
HDD or not. If the HDD is faulty or missing should the laptop boot
from a floppy?

Chris Tutty