That sounds a bit grim.
If you do get to the format and reinstall stage it may be worth looking for a low level format tool from the drive manufacturer.
I have an IBM drive that windows consistently refused to boot from and would not accept a reinstall, even after a format using the supploied windows tools. I removed it, replaced it and moved on. Tinkering with it a month or so later I tried the diagnostics tools from the IBM site. It highlighted problems and recommended a low level format, hours of writing zeros later the drive was fine and it has worked ever since.