Hardware or a virus problem?

Hi,
I work with a win 2000 network. I got message on a win 2000 Professional computer: "inaccessible boot device..".I restart in a recovery console and ran chkdsk c: /r, and after that the computer booted normaly.After few minutes I received a message that indicates a problem with a registry key "configure/security/" and the computer could not boot again
How can i tell if it is a hardware problem or a mbr virus?

Use one of these free online virus scanners to rule out a virus:

Trend Micro
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

Panda ActiveScan
http://www.pandasoftware.com/active...n_principal.htm

McAfee FreeScan
http://us.mcafee.com/root/mfs/default.asp

Symantec
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/

Did you create an ERD when the machine was setup? You could use this along with the repair option in setup to restore your registry.

Please post your results
Tom

Today I tried to recover the computer again but:
1. Recovery console: fixboot didn't help
2. Recovery console: chkdsk c: /r (again) didn't help
so, I tried to
3. format c:
We use Compaq PC with Compaq CD. After formating, Instaling the OS didn't pass normaly, I received a message: couldn't copy gpedit.dll and (maybe a wrong decision but) I restarted the computer and tried again. It didn't work.
I don't have very much time to experiment because I work with a big computer network, and Imy college insissted to send the computer to the service. I still suppose it was maight be a computer virus. The floppies that the user used couldn't be formated also because of unrecognized file system!

Sounds like you are strapped for time. You might be better off backing-up the critical data and performing a clean install (deleting the old partitions).

Good luck, curious to hear how this pans out.
Tom