So I am level 21 and through out the game I have mainly just adventured around, exploring caves and what not. After a large amount of exploring I then started the quests for the Companions. I love it. Fantastic. About three quarters way through completing all the quests It seems I have run into what is called a 'bug'. I was told to go into a cave and kill a witch for her head. So I proceeded and obtained then witches head. When I traveled back to Whiterun and found Aela and another member of the Companions outside, standing over a dead silver hand, i then went and spoke to the fellow inside( cant remember his name at this time). After he informs me that the silver hand had attacked while I was gone, and that also the silver hand has killed the main old guy of the companions, he then tells me that we are going to go and attack the silver hand and retrieve our something of wuuthrad? So after he tell me he walks away and sits down...Nothing popped up indicating that the quest 'purity of revenge' started. When I went to go speak to him he had no talk options about the attack. Strange. So after doing some research I discovered that the reason why I cant start this quest, is because I had recently cleared out the driftshaft refuge. Meaning that either I had already killed someone important or the driftshaft refuge had not re spawned. I need help on what too do. I tried waiting 30 legit days and still they are not there. Any suggestions would be fantastic. Or even and update because I know that TONS of people are running into the same problem.

I have the exact same problem, but I did not clear driftshade until after speaking to him

I have this same problem with update 1.2... i've tried waiting, bethesda needs to get this nonsense fixed

Yea I got the same bug as well

has anyone tried waiting 30+ days before going to the companions hall to see if the quest works?? i'm currently doing other quests with 5 heads at 4 pounds chillin in my inventory... kinda annoying

I have the same issue but apparently because I had the helm quest open from the same location.
I went and finished the helm quest without killing anyone (annoying) but still cannot get this quest to start.

It bugs me because the save before this happened is ages ago and I want a 'complete' platinum save.

I just need a away of restarting the quest now I have completed the helm quest which was stopping the companion quest starting correctly.

Hopefully this is fixed soon.

I'm having the same problem as you guys except I had never even been to winterhold nor had I cleared the dungeon so who knows

There seem to be more issues than pixels in this [censored]ing game

Same here. I've started the Companions quest just to improve combat skills. Well, now I'm stuck being a hairy werewolf. This quest is still broken if you've cleared Driftshade before.

I lost my follower 'Aela the huntress' during the 'Battle for Whiterun' ...I have finished the 'Totems of Hircine' with her prior to this.

Will it have any effect on future companions quests, now that she's dead?

My question is... if this is fixed, are we still screwed, since the trigger to start the quest is speaking with Valkas (or whatever his name is) upon returning to Jorrvaskr after massacring the hagravens? Obviously that script isn't going to happen again, so... yeah.

I have tried waiting 30+ days... the two enemies outside Driftshade respawn, as do the boss chest items inside (the exit door becomes blocked from the outside once more, as well)... but none of the enemies within the dungeon return (which seems super-weird, seeing as I haven't encountered this issue with any other dungeon, quest or no quest... after a few days they all seem to refill with enemies, no problem). I even tried attacking the "stuck" Companions to break them out of their "busy" states and still nothing happened.

When you tried waiting was it before or after you went to turn in the heads, and if you have a save your able to do it with can you try and wait until they respawn and then go take the heads in to find the old man dead

When I had this problem I had another side quest, in the place the silver hand should had spawned, what I did was go finish the first side quest, and left 1 silver hand leader alive (normally a guy with plate armor) and retrieved the quest item, it was the winterhold crown quest given by the jarl.
Then I used console to advance quest to part 5, sorry I dont remember the exact code I'm not at home.

But the solution is simple, complete the side quest you had in said cave/fort, so you can go with vilkas kill the silver hand, btw if this side quest area is full of silver hand you are doing just fine, just dont forget to keep at least 1 of them alive, so you later finish the "kill all silver hand".

Not everyone is so lucky as to have the option to use console commands... at least i'm not aware of how to use them on the PS3