My laptop crashed...drive shows as "RAW".

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I thought it had been left in sleep mode, but it wouldn't boot. First, it got stuck on what I think is called the "lock screen", never showing my user name or password slot. After that, it wouldn't boot at all. Just stayed with the spinning dots.

I tried using the Windows 10 install disc to "fix my computer", but after at least a half hour it had only got up to about 10%, and then said it couldn't fix the problem.

I hooked the drive up to my newly built computer thru a USB adapter, and the entire drive shows as unformatted..."RAW".

What can cause that? A virus?

The laptop is second hand, and there wasn't much on it so there's no need to try and rescue any data, but I don't know if there could be a virus on the drive. (I know...not smart to have connected it even thru USB to my new build.) Or, could a virus also hide on the motherboard, maybe in the memory? Is that even possible?

Since I can't (and don't really need to) rescue the data, should I just TRY to reinstall Windows 10, or should that hard drive (BRAND NEW!) be burned, and yet another drive be bought for the laptop?

Any suggestions anyone can make...

1. Have you tried booting this machine into the BIOS? (Yes, I know most modern PC's use UEFI, but press DEL or F1 upon startup should still get you to a hardware setup screen.) Once in the Setup screen, can the computer see the hard drive (Manufacturer, model number,etc.). If it can, chances are that the hard drive is still physically usable. I would boot the diagnostic utility available from the drive manufacturer and run the tests to make sure everything is functional. If the diagnostic utility says everything is OK, I'd restart the computer with the Windows 10 install disc and try to reinstall, otherwise you might want to get a hold of a Linux live boot DVD (publisher doesn't matter) and run gparted as root and try to partition the drive as an NTFS drive. Once you have done that, reboot your Windows 10 Install DVD and reinstall Windows 10.

Of course, it goes without saying that if you get any kind of error message while running the drive diagnostics, or gparted complains about the drive, stop what you're doing, and replace the drive, since the drive more that likely sh!t itself and can't be used.

Do you have access to a desktop? If so, I'd try connecting the hard drive directly through SATA, rather than using a USB adapter. You may need to unhook the DVD drive if you don't have a spare SATA cable lying around.