BCD boot problem

After a system crash last night and the system not recognizing the HDD I created a Windows 7 bootable USB from the files on the OS install disc (the system will not boot from the disc) I managed to get my system to boot and get into the Recovery Environment. Ran a diagnostic and now I get a message "Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause." followed by steps to fix it. There is also the error message:
File:\Boot\BCD
Status: 0xc0000098
Info: The Windows Boot Configuration Data file does not contain a valid OS entry.

The issue I am experiencing is when I hit enter to continue with the bootable USB inserted and the OS disc in the optical drive after restarting it just returns back to the error message screen. I have tried modifying the boot order in the BIOS and using the F12 one time boot menu to attempt getting back to Windows RE but it just returns to the error screen. This is on a Dell Vostro 1540.

Try booting into F12 to run the Diagnostics suite to check over your hardware just to be sure.

If it will boot then you may need to burn another disk from Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start
which also includes everything that can be done to start Win7.

If nothing continues to boot, try resetting the BIOS to defaults: Clear CMOS - 3 Ways to Clear the CMOS - Reset BIOS

Report back results as you go through the steps as there may be others indicated.

Yes I have done that. The only problem is with the hard drive. It says there is not one present when there is. Removed it and reseated it several times and put it in a second laptop with the same result. Not even diskpart can find it. I do believe I am going to have to replace it. I just hope I can recover my files. There are some that are irreplaceable.

You'd know how to rescue files if you'd even clicked the link to look over the steps, which include several that might help.

Uhh...ok. Kind of moot since I have not yet replaced the hard drive and reinstalled the OS. Can't work on it if the system is not working. Don't believe any of that would work if between two different laptops neither could even detect the hard drive. Basically the computers saw no hard drive connected. This tells me that the drive is dead and unrecoverable.