"Hard disk(s) fail (80)"

The battery on the motherboard could be the problem.  Does not necessarily have to be lithium, just is on newer computers.  Wait for other expert comments on changing the battery.

If it won't come off then most likely it is soldered on the MB, Look close to the battery and there should be a set of pins that is for an external battery to be hooked up to.
If you go into CMOS setup (BIOS) and set the HD up there does the message go away on reboot? Or are you stuck at that error screen and can go no further?

another big test for batter is to see whether the clock keeps correct time and date.
If so it is not a batter problem. Also if you bios supports auto detection for HD try it.  If does not come up, try entering manually.  
Kejtar

Where you inside your case at all? ...  Check the ribbon cable to the harddrive and the motherboard and make sure that they are snug and plugged in.

Remember that the with the Hard Drive cable that the side of the cable with the "Red" line denotes the way the cable should hook up.  Verify that the side of the cable that has the red line is connected to the marking of PIN 1 on the motherboard and PIN 1 on the hard drive on the other side.

hey dmuz, why did you block the question?  now other experts will most likely not look into it, since it got moved........you should post it as a comment until the postee of the question says which answer helped him solve his problem
Kejtar

How did I block it?

TO: dmuz
Yes I have checked the ribbon cable several times and it's OK.

TO: Everybody
The HD worked fine before I formated it which I find strange. When I formate the HD and try to boot the error message "Hard disk(s) fail (80)" appears and gives me the opportunity to press F1 to continue or DEL to enter setup. I have tried to change things in BIOS and also loaded the default BIOS settings but still get the error message above. I have even managed to install Windows 95 by pressing F1 at startup to bypass the error message but as soon as the install program wants to reboot I get the error message again. I have looked at the text on my HD and written it down to manually set my HD in BIOS and then tried to auto detect the HD. It finds it and suggests three alternatives. I choose the one wich reads Size=545 Cyls=1057 Head=16 Landz=1056 Sector=63 Mode=Normal
I have also noticed the clock and date and it shows the correct time and date. I'll let the computer run for a couple of hours and then I'll tell you if it holds correct time.

/mrc  

>>I'll let the computer run for a couple of hours and then
>>I'll tell you if it holds correct time.

If you leave the computer running, of course, time & date will be kept all right, because the circuitry which keeps the clock is fed by the main power supply; the battery only plays its game when computer is turned off.

TO:vikiing
Yes of course you are right I don't know what I was thinking of.

Anyway I have solved the problem now by changing the jumper setting on the HD. I ran the HD-auto detection and selected the suggested values and now it's working.

/mrc