Computer that won't Start Up. (XP Prof)

[Pebbles]

Have a laptop, which has decided to do strange things.

When I switch it on, I get a message saying "we apologise for the inconvenience but windows did not start successfully, a recent hardware or software change may of cause this, it then gives you a list of options, including safe mode, last known good config, and start windows normally.

If you try safe mode it brings up a load of writing, then a very brief message which you don't have time to read, then it restarts itself and you are back to square on, The Start windows normally or last known good config settings list lead to the main windows starting page where the little blue dashes move across the page in the rectangle and there it stays, not budging

Have tried using the recovery CD-rom but cannot get any further with that without getting warning messages about not having 2 systems running on one file etc. I am not that brilliant with computers but willing to try anything.

[denispiow]

This is likely to be a faulty hard drive
best advice is take it to a small reputable retailer as the big nationals will want to sell you a new laptop.
a lot of the time the recovery cd will work but not if the drive it is recovering on to is bad.
also the recovery disk if it does work WILL WIPE everything.
this is what we do
a) try an oem disk and do a recovery build (second try at pressing r)
b)hook the drive up to another pc and backup the data
c) format and start again
you cant do this with a recovery build so tread carefully

[Pebbles]

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated.