A disk read error occurred on boot

[solderjoint13]

I've got a compaq Presario cq50 laptop running vista basic and now when the computer is turned on I get this message:
A disk read error occurred
Press Ctrl+Alt+del to restart

I've ran tests on the Hard drive.
The quick test gave: #100080 - Replace Hard Disk 1rent test item
Complete test gave: #100080 - Replace Hard Disk 1rent test item
The Smart Check: Hard Disk Passed

The owner of the laptop said that he thinks its a virus that he got.
I do not have a recovery disk or an OS disk for this computer.

I'm hoping that there is just a problem with the software and not the hardware any help would be great.

 

[mqudsi]

It really sounds like the hard drive crashed, but the only way to know for certain is to boot from an Ubuntu Linux Live CD and try to see if you can see the contents of the disk.

If so, use our repair disks to run chkdsk /r from the command prompt.