Rebuild Bootcfg fails: scan does not find Windows

Guys this may be the edge of a HDD failure but so far I can't tell.
Got a call on a WinXP Dell desktop I recently rebuilt with a fresh install of xp pro sp3, it all looked fabulous. but "out of the blue", it went to a no boot condition with a couple of the "corrupt or missing" messages: the current one is "ntoskrnl.exe" missing or corrupt, please replace file.

so I amended the attributes of the boot.ini file and deleted it.
Ran chkdsk /R/F and completed that.
Ran BOOTCFG /REBUILD
and after trying unsuccessfully got the "failed to find" message.

My questions: should I continue to try command-line fix of the boot files, or try a "repair install" or just start over from scratch? Or none of the above?

 

From the Recovery ConsoleI would try

FIXMBR

FIXBOOT

The former resets the disk boot sector and the latter resets the boot partition boot sector

 

I would suggest testing the hard drive, and ram, if Earthlings suggestion fails to solve it- both will cause file errors.