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Could be because of an improper hard drive installation (not wired correctly, screws to tight), failing power supply (not enough power to the hard drive), flaky hard drive adapter (or controller), incorrect hard drive setting in CMOS Setup or simply a dead hard drive.
One of the easiest ways to test it would be to hook up another compatible, known-good hard drive. If it works you know everything but the original hard drive is OK.
You may need to enter the BIOS/CMOS setup program.
To enter the BIOS/CMOS program requires the user to wait for the cursor to go to the upper right hand side of the screen when starting up and using the F10 key on the keyboard.
On some Compaqs using the F10 key when the Compaq logo is displayed will get you into the setup program.
Once in the program, record the settings for your hard drive and floppy drive and post those settings back here.(If there are any)
Or, try to correct the settings there by yourself....just be sure you
write down the previous settings before you modify anything.
Be careful not to change anything until you read the instructions.