Please help computer reboots

I posted this in another part of the site and apparently it was the wrong part. I apologize, but thank you to the person that corrected me. http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?p=1053367#post1053367
Can someone please help me?

Hello, this is my first time posting on this site so please bear with me. I have used the tools and advice on this site many times but I'm afraid this time I can't find anything that helps. My fathers computer crashed about a month ago. He said he had a bad boot sector. He messed around for two seeks and got all of his information off and installed a new HD. Now for the last week or so it was working fine. Then all of a sudden yesterday it stopped booting. It will count the RAM and get to the windows logo then just reboot. I tried to get into safemode but still it just reboots. I can run the computer using a KNOPPIX 3.8 CD that someone gave me. The problem is I can't get any of the virus scanners to work. It won't let me run the Avg on the HD and none of the online scanners work. I've read some other postings online that say this is most likely a worm or memory related. I do not think its memory because I can run this knoppix off of the CD. Can someone please point me where to go to get his computer back up and running? Thank You

update
Okay, I used a google data lifeguard cd that came with a HD I bought. It found a bad sector and repaired it. everything works now. But this HD is only 2 weeks old and I find an odd coincidence that it too has a bad sector. It did not tell me if it was the file structure sector like the last HD but it was at least one with some important files on it. Is it possible for a virus or worm to corrupt a sector of a HD or is this hardware related? Any ideas?

 

Try one of the real memory checkers. There are some recommended here. What you need is one of those running for a looooong time.

It may not be memory related, but memory related problems can do weird things. I once had a PC where I could install some Linux, not other. W98 ok, W2000 sometimes, XP no. It would show all kind of weird crashes. One bad module out - no more problems.

 

Look for something common to both the original installation and the new.

Five things can cause hard drive data corruption, leading to restarting problems.

Firstly
Connectors/cables - check condition and seating.

Secondly
Motherboard hardware failure.
This could fail to show up if your linux installation was not stressing the right bit eg hard drive channels.

www.badcaps.net

Thirdly
Partial/ intermittent failure of the power supply.
(make sure all connectors are properly seated)
Try a substitute / measurements on load.

Fourthly
A connected item such as a printer or wireless keyboard can cause this. USB stuff is particularly prone to this failure mode.

Finally
Memory as already mentioned elsewhere.

 

Thank you I will give it all a try and report back.

 

Changed power supplies haven't had a problem since

 

Option 3 then

Thanks for the feedback.