My computer is evil, can someone help me out?

It won't let me reinstall windows! It says the computer has no hard drive installed! I've tried like 6 times!

Im pretty sure this isnt a software issue.

Did you try to Restore the system? Or did that crash too because of the no hard drive error?

I tried system restore it didn't do jack.

Before buying a new hard drive, after windows checked it for errors already, I'd run the PC_cillin housecall on it. It's worth a try and it's free.

http://housecall60.trendmicro.com/en/start_corp.asp?id=scan

If the scan disk found no errors with the disk, I don't think it's the hard drive.

Ok I ran the AV thing you linked Leck and it says I'm clean too... Time for the black candles and sacrificial noob.

Yes dell is notorious for this. Where I used to work the buyer and director of the computing department told me the way it works. Dell tests thier equipment throrouly. When you buy a PC form dell you can get better quality stuff than if you put a PC together yourself with off the shelf parts, because they only use parts that maintain a certain score on thier tests. They can tell with great accuracy how long a part will last, therefore when you purchase your warrenty you are pretty much paying for the longevity of your system.

I'm not trying to bad mouth Dell, I think they have good support and a great product, but business is business. You get what you pay for. I can say on thier behalf that when a part does break within warenty they get the part replaced lightning fast. Maybe that's because the organisation I worked for was a very large account. But I just know that Dell took very good care of them and I'm sure still does.

Everyone I know has been having computer issues this year and I was one of them.
Two other programs to scan your system for viruses and trojans that will pick up crap that none of the others will are these two.

http://www.trojanhunter.com/
http://www.ewido.net/en/

Both programs are compatible with almost all anti-virus software.

When I used both of them a while ago, I was able to download a trial version. When I ran them both I was shocked at how many trojans I had. Made complete sense as to why my system was doing weird things. And at the time I was doing Panda, Avast, Trend Micro and the piece of junk anti-virus software that was originally on this beast.

So I JUST used Everest a couple of weeks ago on a system that was going bad (and has since gone kaput completely, so I can't retrieve the installation file), and then I went to Texas for a week and came back to find that Everest personal edition was discontinued as of December 1. ::cries::

Anyone have the last release of it?

Did you hear a slight chirping noise before your system crashed? Hard drives often make little, slightly muted chirping noises a few seconds before they freeze up. This is definitely the season for replacing drives for me, so I've gotten used to that sound. I'm about to install my 3rd one in two years on my main system (and also about to replace my 550w power with a 600w) and just put in the second HD on our second system. I've got a little collection going and I'm starting to wonder how hard it would be to fix a hard drive motor. At the very least it would be fun to take it apart and put it back together.

Go with NewEgg for cheap parts. They deliver fast and have good customer service. MWave is also good for the price, but with more passive customer service (but if Walnut is a reasonable drive away then you can actually pick up the drive from mWave instead of waiting for delivery).