[CORed]

I think it is more likely that the controller on your motherboard failed than that both hard drives failed simultaneously. I would try installing them in another computer to see if they work. If the hard drives are good, no special software should be needed. You may need to go into disk management and assign drive letters.

also, as others have suggested, check BIOS settings. Also, bood off a Windows install CD and see if the hard drives are recognized.

One more thought. Open your case and check your cable connections. Reseat both power and data connections. Also, if both drives are on one cable in a master/slave setup, try replacing the cable. It always pays to check the simple stuff first. You could also try switching the hard drives to the other controller: Probably CD and/or DVD drives are on this one (assuming you have IDE HD's. You would lose your removable drives, but this might give you a chance to recover your data. If both drives really are dead, you could try a data recovery company. This will cost some money, but it may be worth it.