Any troubleshooters out there? What's wrong with my PC?

semi_artificial

My software on my laptop was installed for me by a work colleague (as I am a technical numpty) and it has run fine for two months, until today.
I've got to the point where I know I can't fix this problem as I don't have the installation disks etc, but if anyone can pinpoint the problem (and likely cause!) I would be grateful. Here's the sequence of events:
- left laptop downloading a file
- wife saw it with BSOD - I saw that it had carried out a physical memory dump but don't recall the rest. I now know I should have recorded more details.
- rebooting caused it to tell me somethign along the lines that there was a missing or invalid disk, retry Ctrl-Alt-Del
- Tried F10; disk analysis returned disk read fail errors on the 2 and 30 minute tests
- Instigated recovery console during reboot
- This returned a message that the "toside.sys file is corrupted" - then a 'setup failed' message
- The machine tried to boot to XP while I was writing notes
- Failed so I switched off and tried recovery console again
- This time it said "file setupdd.sys could not be loaded. The error code is 14. Setup cannot continue"
- After pressing a key, I chose to restart with "last known good configuration"
- This returned a message that "windows would not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: system32\Drivers\Ntfs.sys"
- Also said I can attempt to repair this using the original setup CD-ROM (which I don't have).

You're still with me? Thanks!
Ok, you need to remember I'm a numpty.
Has my HDD failed, or has something knackered my software? (I'd be disappointed if it's a virus/trojan as I have ZoneAlarm Security Suite!)
Any ideas what the likely fix is?
I'm hoping that the guy who set it up will try to fix it, but I'd like to feel that I've got as far as I can in getting to the bottom of it.
Any help will be appreciated.
Have a virtual beer for your trouble! :beer:
Thanks.

espresso

Might help if you told us what you were downloading and from where!

semi_artificial

It purported to be a file in .rar format from ... well, it wasn't exactly Microsoft shall we say.

amcluesent

> Has my HDD failed,<

Probably, did you hear any nasty 'clicking' noises from the disk when you rebooted after the BSOD?

Debtworry_2

Have you tried booting into safe mode? (pressing the F8 key when you turn on) not to fast tho otherwise windows will think it's a sticky key.

Conor_3

semi_artificial wrote: »

It purported to be a file in .rar format from ... well, it wasn't exactly Microsoft shall we say.

In my book, as a software thief, you're on your own.

You're paying the price for using dodgy software. The only way out is to wipe the hard drive completely and install Windows. If you're just going to stick on a pirate version again, why not put a version of Linux on such as Ubuntu which has excellent online support? It's free so you've no need to go stealing anything.

At least Karma has bit you in the !!!.