downloaded virus

[Marcia]

Nothing else is attached to the laptop when I make changes and boot up.  

I disabled the Floppy in the boot order and still nothing changed.  I'm going to get an external hard drive, back up all my files and then when I have the time I'm going to try the Recovery Console and run fixmbr and fixboot.  

I don't think there's anything else I can try.

[guestolo]

I have the time I'm going to try the Recovery Console and run fixmbr and fixboot.

You can see if it's any help

In the bios should be settings for Quick boot or Mulitboot, what is your setting?
You can probably disable the message by setting to Halt on No errors in the bios, and run a different diagnostic tool to see if the harddrive is actually going bad

Do you know the manufacturer of your harddrive?
Right click MyComputer and select Properties>>Hardware>>Device Manager>>Expand (+) on Disk drives
Should give you info

If not, download   SIW Standalone (English-Only)
from the following link
http://www.gtopala.com/siw-download.html
Save to desktop, double click to run
When it initializes
Click on "Storage Devices" in the left hand column
on the right hand should Display the Vendor of your hard disk>>Direct Access device

[Marcia]

I can't find anything in my bios settings for Quick Boot or Multi-boot.  I also don't have any option to Halt on no errors.  My harddrive is a Toshiba MK4025GAS-(PM).

[guestolo]

I downloaded the manual for your laptop, it shows that it does have options for Quick or Multi boot options under the Advanced menu>>Boot options

I don't trust the scan too much from the diagnostic tool you ran from HP
I think it only runs a quick scan and may be conflicting results

I don't think Toshiba has a utility to check their drives
But Seagate Seatools has both a Windows enviroment  version and DOS version

I would go with the latter, less chance of interference
If you would like to try this route
Go to the following link
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools

Scroll down to "Seagate Tools for DOS now!"
and click that link
Click "I Accpet" on the next page
Supply an Email address and that's it, then click Submit
At the next page, choose to download the English (EN) version under v2.07 (Graphical)
ISO CD-ROM Image

Save the download to desktop, now you have to burn it as an Image file (ISO)
I would choose to use a CDRW if you have one, as you can just erase it later
But if all you have is a CD-R, that will do
If your unsure how to burn .iso files, Seatools gives instructions under
[color=\"#0000FF\"]How to burn an .ISO image [/color]

when the burn process is done, leave the CD inserted
Boot to the BIOS and ensure that First boot device is CD-ROM
Save the changes and then let Seatools load at boot
After it's booted, Accept the agreement>>Let it then finish scanning for devices
It should hopefully find your Toshiba drive
If it does>>Under TESTS (Something like that) in the top left
Select to do the LONG TEST
This can take a couple hours or so, depending on the size of your disk

When the test is done, let me know if SMART was tripped or not
and if the drive passed
You can just exit the tests once done, remove the CD
and Ctrl+Alt+Del to reboot

[Marcia]

I just can't win...I download a recorder and burned the file as an ISO file onto a disc.  I rebooted and the program ran until it got to the user agreement.  I could not click the I Accept button.  I tried everything!!!! but nothing worked.  I had to remove the cd and give up.  I just want to pull my hair out at this point.. I'm still putting off using the recovery console because for some reason or other you don't seem to promote that avenue...any reason?  I'm just curious.

[Marcia]

Well I used the recovery console and ran FIXMBR and FIXBOOT and neither worked.  I still have to press F1 to get Windows to boot up.

[Marcia]

In the meantime I've downloaded an older Flash version for the BIOS.  I went through all 4 older versions and nothing has changed.  I put it back to the most current version.

[guestolo]

I'm at a loss here, I thought it would be a Bios setting, as since it was changed, that's when you noticed the F1 prompt

I can't find anything in my bios settings for Quick Boot or Multi-boot

I would double check the bios settings to ensure you missed something
However, according to the manual, you have minimal settings, but take a close look

I am going to assume that Seatools is not compatible with the Toshiba harddrive
they want you to run it's own diagnostic tool
It came clean on harddrive, but your error seems related to harddrive, it's a bit confusing
I would still ensure you backup important files regularly, just to be safe
Not sure what else to recommend

[Marcia]

I did go and purchase an external HD and am planning on backing up everything on a regular basis.  I guess for now I'll just keep pressing F1 to boot Windows and live with that.  

Thanks anyway for all your help.  Look on the bright side...I get more experience and confidence in trying to fix my pc instead of being afraid I'm going to break something.