Won't boot after possible virus

I'm not sure what happened, but a friend gave me their notebook because it wouldn't boot. Upon start up, the PC gets through post and then gives me a blank screen. I ran a HDD test from bios which passed, then I tried using the windows xp pro install cd to repair (or fix boot.ini or nltdr). After selecting the repair option i was given a no HDD detected. I checked bios and verified that the correct settings for the HDD were in place. Next, i slaved it to a different pc and ran malwarebytes and emisoft (asquared) and put it back in the notebook with the same result as before. I'm not that familiar with the boot process, but i did compare the boot.ini and the nltdr.com files to a healthy version of xp pro and it looked like everything checked out. Is it possible that a virus can infect the cmos? I'm running out of ideas and any that you guys have would be appreciated.

 

thx, ill give it a try

 

Well, after further research I installed EASEUS partition master home. Then i used that to rebuild the MBR of the corrupt HDD. Then it would try to boot and gave me an error about a missing file. So, i put the Xp pro CD in again to see if I could use the Recovery console. Again, it said it could not find an existing hard drive with XP installed on it. Any thoughts?

 

update:

The system will now boot, but gets stuck right before the login screen with a lsass.exe error. I've researched it a little bit, and all signs point to the advice i got in the first place. The only problem is that when i boot using the xp pro cd and try the repair option it still won't recognize the operating system. In fact, it still says that Windows cannot detect a hard drive. Is there something else i can do to get into the recovery console? Thanks in advance