biosinfo.inf missing after reload of xp pro

buddy of mine bought a HP NV6230 from their company. the laptop had the company OS image loaded on it so i decided to reload the machine. while loading xp pro i noticed that it had to spots where it froze for a while. 61% and 67%. ( i have tried reloading 5 times and it always take for ever at those 2 spots ) after load of xp pro i get biosinfo.inf missing or corrupt. after using a program to get into the c drive i could not find the file so it is missing. i tried to repair from the OS disc each time but did not work.

is there an easy way to fix this? could it be possible that the hard drive is bad?