24" iMac not recognizing internal hard drive..

end of '07 iMac 24" 2.4GHz
I have been having problems with this iMac since day 1... I'm kind of fed up with it at this point BUT I would like to get it working at least.
PROBLEM: Yesterday I was working on the ol' iMac and I walked away, the computer fell asleep and when I got back to wake it up it seemed a little off. I restarted and thats when the magic happened. I got the question mark of death. Didn't think it was an issue since I've gotten it in the past. Usually I restart again, maybe reset PRAM, and its fine. Orrrr if that doesnt work I use the Snow Leopard disc or Disk Warrior and it'll work fine. Yesterdays problem was more unique.
Disc Utility, Disk Warrior, etc are not even recognizing the internal hard drive at all. Nothing. Like it doesn't even exist. When you try and set the start up disk, it's missing from the list. It doesn't make any noise, nothing. It worked fine 5 minutes before that.
Any ideas? or is it time for the ol' Apple repair shop? Could it be just the drive or something more serious? Luckily I have a time machine and everything should be backed up incase of the worst scenario.
Any help would be great. thanks.

It sounds like the drive has failed, you can try starting it with the install disc it came with and trying to repair the disk. The instructions for doing that are:
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install or Restore disc.
2. Restart the computer, then hold the C key during startup.
3. From the Apple menu, choose Disk Utility. Do this in the first screen of the Installer. Don't click 4. Continue. If you click Continue in a Mac OS X Installer version earlier than 10.2, you must restart from CD again.
5. Click the First Aid tab.
6. Click Repair Disk.
7. After repairing the disk, try to start from the Mac OS X hard disk.
If the drive still cannot be seen then make an appointment with an AASP.
Regards,
Roger

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2) sometimes the imac boots up after a cold start.
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Message was edited by: lisuhhx

I am having this same problem all of a sudden. My external hd shows up in disk utility; however, it does not show up under devices or is it recognized any more by time machine. When I try and repair it, the repair fails and list a "invalid node structure" and "volume check failed". I disconnect the external hd's power source and firewire connection, reconnected, and this did nothing.
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Yeah I know but here is what´s happening step by step:
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24" iMac not recognizing internal hard drive..

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