my hard drives randomly disappeared

I tried to use my old computer today and when I tried to boot it up it doesn't recognize my hard drives. I went in to setup and manually entered the info for both my hard drives (yes I got master and slave) and saved this info but still the computer does not recognize either drive. The computer has Windows 98.

They are properly plugged into the motherboard and up until a week or two ago they worked fine. I doubt both my hard drives died simultaneously so I suspect I have a virus. My question is how I get rid of a virus on my computer if I can't even boot except with a floppy disk, so obviously can't run windows.

Try popping your harddrives into your new persocon and see if that works. And while you're at it scan or whatever. May also be a motherboard problem.