Acer aspire one 722 PXE-M0F No bootable device

Hi,

Today I was watching a video stored on my netbook when the video froze.  I clicked around on the screen, and closed the video and tried to re-open that file and some different ones, because it would not open.

Then, a blue screen came up, with the message that there was a kernel_data_inpage_error.  I didn't record all of the stop codes, but one was 0x0000007a and another ended with 185.  The screen was doing some sort of a memory dump or something, so I let it finish this, and then it shut down.

Now, when I boot up, the computer quite quickly goes to a screen that tells me about the Atheros PCIE Ethernet Controller v2.0.2.6(09/28/10).  It says to "Check cable connection!  PXE-M0F: Exiting Intel PXE ROM.  No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key"

Nothing I have tried seems to help: pressing any key obviously doesn't help; I tried removing the battery and holding down on the power button for 20 sec. which supposedly will reset something, but that made no apparent change; I tried also changing the order of boot items, but that made no change.  Only the boot menu and the BIOS setup seem to be available, so there is no option to go to safe mode.  In the BIOS, the name of the hard disk is no longer listed, so it appears to have gone off the map.

As for setup for the issue -- I didn't suddenly move my laptop or bump it, I haven't had it out very much this winter, and there were no apparent signs before the problem other than a minute or so before -- no unusual slowdowns or odd noises.  I haven't had the netbook online for a few weeks, either, so it is quite unlikely it suddenly acquired a virus.  So other than taking it apart and giving up on the hard disk altogether (which would be an unhappy conclusion, because I have some of my collected files stored on there as extra storage space), I'm not sure what to try next.  

For recovery options, as there is no disk drive and I do not have an external disk drive, from my investigations into creating a recovery disk of some sort last year, I seem to have only created a folder I called "laptop recovery disk contents (copy to usb if needed)," but it looks rather sparse (folders boot and sources and file bootmgr), so I may have made it custom in case of issue with booting only, rather than whatever extra issues might be fixed by something more thorough.  I have now had the netbook for about 13 months + a week, so it is just narrowly beyond the warranty time.  [Actually, from checking the System Information page on this website, rather bizzarely, it indicates that my warranty expired yesterday.]   Anyone had a similar issue and managed to fix it without a total replacement of the hard drive, or just have some more ideas to test out?

[Editor's note: Actually, it turns out there is a 15 month hardware warranty, so I am actually under the wire; a couple of months later, and I might have had a more costly repair.  The IT tech online thought it sounds like a hardware issue, so is having me send in the unit for repair.  Unfortunately, I lose any files I can't get off the unit, and have to pay for shipping. So I guess it's just a combination of bad luck that it broke and good luck that it was stil under warranty.]