>then reinitialized the HD.
Was this done through the Apple HD SC Setup utility, or was the hard disk initialised via the Erase Disk command in the Special menu?
>I've initialized the Hard drive several times but it keeps saying it's damaged and to reinitialize it.
We cannot rule out that the hard disk in fact is damaged (for example, a disk surface problem).
>The icon for the HD no longer appears on desktop. my original 7.0 install diskettes no longer even recognize the existence of a hard drive,
Do you have access to another older Macintosh computer (with a built-in floppy drive) where you could produce a new set of system floppies from Apple downloads (see above)? If so, you could also modify a startup floppy to hold another SCSI formatting utility. Please post back with information about available hardware (models and operating systems).
Jan