sounds like it cant load the boot loader (lilo)

it seems some people (including myself ) have had an issue with the drives getting messed up

im assuming drive geometry is messed up on your system

go to manufactuer (of the drive western-digital etc...) get thier tools diskete (all of them have such tools0

fix your drive by writing zeros to it completly....and fixing as well....

then use different partition soft to config your drive partition magic acronis etc.....