XP not recognizing anything USB & 2nd hard disk!

I recently found that anything USB that i Plug into my computer ( any usb port) xp gives me the "found new hardware" wizard w/ the error of " there was a problem installing this device--data is invalid". it's only a 256MB flash drive with nothing on it. so i put that issue aside for a while. then i got a western digital 80Gb IDE harddrive and i connected that crap in and the 'found new hardware' error comes up. SAME ERROR! the bios know's its there; device manager shows the hard disk ( and flash drive; pics below) but will not open anything.

i asked my A+ teacher about it, he said that it's most likely a virus:
-i am using avast 4.7 home edition
-updated all virus definitions
-ran a thorough scan of my entire primary hard drive
-NOTHING came up infected.

i've included a screenshot of my running processes just in case someone recognizes something fishy

Pics:








I'm training to get my a+ so anything you think would help would be greatly appreciated.

Since this is the post with all the data I'll respond here:

Step1:

Go to Start, Run and type 'sfc /scannow' (no quotes - have your install disk handy in case it asks for it).

Let it check your files and repair anything it finds bad.

ran what CCT told me to do...no different.