Computer will not boot and gives disk i/o error... if we use a boot disk and access c: is shows a 2 gig file with no name just this smiley ascii character. I think something may be wrong with the drive.. they think it may be a virus. Its fat32. I dont think a virus can cause disk i/o error i think tahts hardware. Any input would be nice. Thanks in advance.

The smiley face is just another character (hex 0) -- from the little information you've given, this sounds like a potentially bad disk. Have you tried formatting it? Do this and check the disk (with CHKDSK or Norton) to see if it really is a hardware problem. Good luck.