HD Not Found After Installing Latest Update

I posted the same question on MS newsgroup but since nobody replies to it and there are about 8 people with the same problem, I thought that I look somewhere else for answer. I'm in the middle of formatting a hard drive, doing the research while waiting. good thing I have another computer to use. I installed the latest MS Windows Update this afternoon (about 10 hours ago) and it renders my computer unusable. the computer won't boot, it just got stuck on the Windows XP screen where the blue bars go from left to right. after about 2-3 runs, it started to get very slow and the little blocks that make up the bars shows up very slowly like in slow motion. I don't (can't) remember the exact KB number, but I remember installing about 7-8 updates. the critical (required) ones are the malicious software removal thing, a patch for IE6, outlook express patch, ms word patch. then I add the root something update and an update for my network card. hen it told me to reboot the computer but the computer will not boot. I tried another hard drive that I haven't used since March, it performs the same "problem", the bars go for about 2-3 runs then it started to get very slow. then it just sits there, stuck, until I press the reset button. I'm currently formatting this hard drive and leaving the updated one untouched because I don't want to have to format that one. too much data and too many programs to reinstall (I want clean install and clean registry).