Pc Has Started To Write Binary On Startup - I'm Baffled

[JANINE]

Hi

I'll start from the beginning here and maybe you guys can help me unravel the puzzle here.

Machine Specs

Packard Bell I MEDIA 5069 Intel P4 1.6GHz
512MB RAM
40 GB HDD
PHILIPS 5.1 SURROUND SOUND CARD
ABIT GRAPHICS CARD
Windows XP Home (AVG antivirus)

Ok theres the specs - now dor the problem. last friday the when i was using the machine it was ok. no problems at all with it. I even ran a virus scan that day i shut it down over night as I was at work. However I came back to use it on Saturday Morning and the machine kept restarting itself as soon as it reached the NTLDR. My brother had a look at it for me and he said that it would have to be reformatted as it was writing binary to the hard drive. I'm baffled as this is the first time i've really had a problem with this machine on this scale. Does anybody have any ideas over what may be the cause of this.

Also I came to the machine this morning and got a lot of noise sounding like static energy dissipiating through the speakers. These seem to be alright now but i cant help wondering if it might be somehow linked.:eek: :?:

[ShawnCplus]

He's somewhat right that it had to be reformatted but the fact that it was writing binary to the hard-drive is a little off since its ALWAYS writing binary to the hard-drive. 1s and 0s(on and off) is the only way something can be stored magnetically. Also did you try booting from a startup disk or a recovery disk before you thought of reformatting?

[jbennet]

do you mean the bootloader?

i screwed up grub once and it wrote 1s and 0s to the screeen forecer and ever so maybe its related