Possible Unknown Busted HD

Gotten a lot of help in the past here so there's defo no other place I'd go:

Well here we go:

I got the consrv.dll virsus from downloading a funky game. I had to do a repair from windows vista to fix it. And it worked until the next day when after being online for a bit the screen froze. I retarted then it said it couldnt find nvstor.dll...its something to do with nvidia. I tried booting off the vista dvd again and it started to boot up again so i could reinstall windows but alas the HD wasnt in the list of drives to repair/install. It just said to look for drivers.

After this everytime I turned on the machine it just says it needs the boot cd and wait there for me to pop it in. All drives are set to auto search in the BIOS but it aint showing up anymore. Its vanished.

I cant tell if its spooling up and maybe the last two reinstalls where the swan song of a very cheap piece of crap hardrive or that the drivers needed for it to boot are lost or..something...bascially ive no idear. And want to try some things before i go down the get a new HD/install windows/get all my apps etc again...pretty annoying. plus theres stuff on there I wouldnt mind having again.,


THANK!

 

You first have to determine if it's spinning up when powered on. Is this a desktop or a laptop? Either way, put your ear closest to the hard drive when powering on the machine to see if you can hear it spin up or not.

Second thing to do is double check the cables/connections. Even on a laptop, try re-seating the drive in the connector. If it isn't spinning up, and you're sure the cables/connections are good, then it's likely your drive has bit the dust. Even if it is spinning up, it could still be bad. Another thing you can try is to boot from a bootable live Linux distro, such as Puppy or Mint, and see if you can see the hard drive using one of those.

 

First, try booting in Safe Mode (start tapping the "F8" key as soon as you turn the PC on and it should give you the option of starting in Safe Mode). This will load only the minimal number of drivers required for Windows to start up. If the drive will not recognize at all, you can choose the "repair your computer" option when the Windows Cd/DVD is inserted.

If it boots and runs for awhile in Safe Mode, it pretty much eliminates a hard drive failure and points to corruption in your current Windows install.

If your PC has restore discs (or a restore partition on the hard drive), I'd back up your data and restore the PC back to factory settings.

As an alternative, if you have the time and patience, I'd search the name of the virus in the Malware forum on Major Geeks and go through the "Read Me First" steps in the Malware Forum.

Hope this helps.

 

i cant get it to boot to windows, it wont 'see' the HD at all. It did after the crash but it 'lost' it somewhere in between trying to repair the HD. Its really confusing. I have it pulled apart and i cant make out if its powering on. Its dark here now and im tired so tomorrow ill discon the dvd drive and fans etc to see if I can hear it.


It does sound like something is missing tho, seen as how ive heard the start up and million and one times....

oh its a desktop

 

hey hey, i pulled everything out and still nothing so reckioned it was just buggered, im broke at the mo so I could only pick up a 1tb hitachi simmtronics 5200rpm HD, now im guessing this sucks for gaming as my old one even tho it was only 500gd was 7200 rpm so ill be seeing less gaming fun.

SO, my question is this, is is possible in the future when ive a tad more cash to place another HD in my machine can I install all the games onto the faster HD and notice faster speeds or does the primary HD (the one with windows on it) need to be holding all the games etc?