problem with my WD SATA HD

[tuudlowq]

yesterday i was on the computer and a family memeber told me to turn it off... i turned it off by pushing the power button for several seconds... then i turned it on quickly while playing around... and i turned it off the same way as before.... i did this several times... the next time i turned on my computer it said i was missing the file \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM... also it said it might be corrupt.... i turned my computer back on with the windows xp cd back in and went to do the repair... it said which windows i wanted to log onto and i put in 1 and it froze... i restarted the computer and tried to just reinstall windows... then it froze when it was searching for previous versions of windows.... is my hard drive corrupt and do i need to buy a new one or is there somthing i could do so i can use it again?

 

[ski]

If possible, remove the HD, jumper it as Slave, install it in another system as Slave, and see if it can be accessed.

If not, then it's probably toast.

 

[wolluf]

Run recovery console -

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307654

and from the prompt run chkdsk /r (if it will let you).

If it won't, download the drive manufacturer's diagnostic utility from their website and run that (normally creates a bootable floppy).