Software Issue: DOESN'T BOOT ANYTHING

Intro: I've had this Aspire One 11.6 since November of last year [2009] and it has been running perfectly for quite a while. Back in February, something I downloaded must have been a virus because it crashed and would only let me access the Windows Recovery. I was lucky enough to copy Windows 7 to a USB and re-install it onto it.

Problem: It was fine for about 2 days until I decided it would be best if I made a partition to backup anything I would need. Instead of backing up everything I thought I would need, I just backed up the Windows 7 Installation Disc into my new partitioned "X Drive". I needed to reboot my PC for the changes to save, so I did. Now, when I boot up my laptop, It shows the acer logo screen and then gives me "Windows Error Recovery Black Screen Of Death". It asks me to boot up in Safe Mode, SM w/ Networking, SM w/ CMD, Last Known Good Configuration, or Start Windows Normally. None of these boot up Windows.

More Information: If I boot up in Safe Mode, it loads all the drivers until "\Windows\system32\drivers\disk.sys" and then that's when it pauses, flashes blue, and restarts. If I start it normally, it says "Starting Windows" with the Windows Logo animation and then finishes, flashes BSOD, and then restarts. I also cannot boot up any of my Installation Discs installed to USB. I've used 3 different USB devices and about 5 different operating system discs and none of them work. They work on other PCs but not on the laptop. My BIOS are default except for the enabled "F12 Boot Menu". The farthest I've gotten to fixing it was when I installed Windows 7 Boot Disc onto my 1TB external harddrive. It said on the laptop screen "NTLDR is missing. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart" or something like that. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do now.

Main question: Is there a way to completely wipe my harddrive without having access to a boot-disc or Windows? How do I fix the "NTLDR" error message?

 

Main Answer, yes
http://www.dban.org/

or you could just use a linux liveusb and the clear it from there,
partedmagic is good



however since it seems like you'd probably like to recover your files, just get a windows usb 'cd', where you can boot windows off (googling will show you how)
and then just run recovery console
you'll probably need to fixmkr / bootsect /fixmbr or somthing, if you have any questions just ask again

 

I downloaded DBAN and it says "BOOTMGR IS MISSING" and gives me the option to restart. Any suggestions? Also, I was able to create a successful Windows 7 boot-USB and it booted up on my netbook, but I can't install anything onto my C: drive because it doesn't show up as a drive. It needs to be reformatted...how would I go about reformatting a drive that doesn't show up in that screen? Is there a way to access CMD without booting up windows?

 

SOLVED!

FIX:

My Windows 7 boot-USB wasn't installed correctly. I used the following tutorial [sorry, I'm not sure if linking to other websites is allowed...just remove link if it is] http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-install-windows-7vista-from-usb-drive-detailed-100-working-guide.

After I booted it up, I tried to install Windows, but no drives were available. I then went to repair windows. From their, I backed up and opened CMD. I went to diskpart and "cleaned" the DISK0 [C Drive] because it was showing up as invalid in list disk. After the cleaning sequenced, it read "online". From then, I could install Windows 7 and now everything is working great.

[Sent via my netbook ]

 

just for further reference,

The black screen isn't death, you can usually fix your problems in safe mode. It can actually be a good thing because your computer knows something is wrong but doesn't want to die just yet. A good idea when you are running safe mode is to run all kinds of registry and data fixes as well because the issue may be more simple than you imagine. Personally I like to run pst and outlook repair. Do you know anything about datanumen?