XP boot failure - possible HDD problem?

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In desperate need of help - my manufacturers are uncontactable at the
moment, and I have a real nasty problem..

My PC starts up fine, BIOS all OK. Then I get the message about
Windows failing to load because of possible power surge or hardware
problems or something, and a choice between loading Windows normally,
loading the last known working setup, or the three variations on
loading safe mode.

Choosing Normal or Last Working Settings - it just hangs at the black
loading screen with the Windows logo, and the loading bar cycling
indefinitely. Nothing happens, even after leaving it for hours.

Choosing safe mode - I get the list of files being loaded, but then it
freezes at a .sys file, which I think is the last file that gets
loaded.

Tried booting from the WinXP CD. I have a Serial ATA hard drive, so I
press F6 and insert my drivers disk. Files continue to load as
displayed in the bar at the bottom. Then I can choose reinstalling
WinXP or trying the recovery console thing. Both choices lead to the
same thing - it tries to examine the hard drive, and freezes with the
text at the bottom saying:

"Examining 156328 mb disk 0 at id 0 on bus 0 on viasraid"

I've tried removing all hardware except the keyboard and monitor, all
PCI cards removed too. I've looked at the hard drive cables, and there
is no obvious damage. I've tried resetting the CMOS. No luck anywhere.
I would try creating boot disks on floppies, but I doubt it would make
any difference, and I don't have a floppy drive on this little laptop
anyway.

I've played around with the BIOS settings with no luck. If this is
some kind of hard drive problem, the BIOS hasn't noticed it.

Why did this happen in the first place? Well I went away over the
weekend, allowing a family member to use the computer. I get back, and
it's like this. From what they've told me, I think they may have turned
mains power off without shutting down Windows, but nothing worse than
that. Perhaps a virus, but I was quite well protected.

Well thanks for reading. Any ideas or opinions would be very well
received.

My system:

K8V SE ASUS motherboard
AMD Athlon 3700+
Maxthon 160Gig VIA Serial ATA hard drive

Had it working successfully for about 9 months.

Marc.


--
skinima
.

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