Reformatted my old Packard Bell

I wanted to get rid of all the BS files on an upgraded 75 Mhz Legend Packard Bell, so reformatting to the original Windows 3.1 was the answer, I thought.
The problem is that I have two hard drives and it neither will get to " F1 key setup" while the ribbon is plugged into the primary pin connection on the motherboard. While plugging into the secondary allows setup to appear all drive will not auto configure.
Now I am lost on what to do besides trash the thing, but the kids can still use it for word processing and e-mail. I would appreciate advise