Laptop Boot/HardDrive Problem

[gamer1drew]

Hey guys one of my friends laptops has been acting up. First it was just very slow to boot to windows. After a few weeks of this it would no longer boot windows and would give the error:

Corrupt or missing files in
C:\Windows\system32

I assumed this was just a bad install of windows, so I came over to get the laptop and save a few files over. I booted off a knoppix so I could access the Harddrive still, and hooked it up to an external harddrive to save the files onto. Everything was seeming to work but the transfer died and would not let me read from the laptops hard drive anymore. I rebooted and knoppix no longer detected the laptop harddrive. Even BIOS no longer detects the Hard Drive and I cant even install windows anymore.

Do those problems seem like the logical progression of harddrive failuire? (Slow to boot, corrupt windows files, Hard drive no longer being detected) or do you think it could be something like motherboard failure?

EDIT:
The laptop has also been having problems turning on and off. Holding the off button does not seem to work in about half of cases.

Thanks in advance, I really appreciate any help.

 

[digital_exhaust]

Do those problems seem like the logical progression of harddrive failuire? (Slow to boot, corrupt windows files, Hard drive no longer being detected)

Yes.

Try Spin Rite.