Windows 10 repair loop...again

[BlackHawk21]

I could not find a suitable resolution so asking again here.

To start, I have Windows 10 on a HP Pavilion laptop. I went through the stages of locating the drive with Program Files, Users, and Windows (http/www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/139576-startup-repair-infinite-loop-recovery.html). However, no drive contains all three. My C: drive says
0 recovery*txt
Users
Windows
1 file(s). 0 bytes
2 dir(s) 463,724,851,200 bytes free

I am going to assume that somehow my C: has been erased. This laptop has a 500GB hard drive. Nevertheless, I went forward with cd\windows\windows32\config to find the error "The system cannot find the path specified." I am pretty sure I am going to receive the answer "you need to reinstall Windows" but what do I do about this? How does a drive miraculously become blank? The only drive with data on it is X: which appears to be an internal RAM disk.

 

[BlackHawk21]

I was able to access the BIOS and run a system test. It appears my HDD has gone to hell. It failed the HD Short DT check. All postings I have seen regarding this failure says the drive is bad and needs replaced. Oh well....new OS + new HDD = new box