problem starting windows xp

[barricades]

Hey there, I've had a hoke through the forum and I've seen that a lot of people have issues with windows not starting, but no-one had the exact symptoms that I have had, hence this new thread.

Basically yesterday I shut my computer down as normal but when I turned it on again last night it got as far as the windows logo and then just froze there. After a while I hit the power button to turn it off and try again. This time it went to the screen where it offers you options to start in safe mode/with network/start windows normally etc... tried to start windows normally and again it only got as far as the windows logo then stopped. Tried safe mode, which just thru up a list of things and then froze. Tried the other options, same thing. Then all of a sudden whilst trying to start the 'puter again it decides to go into some sort of self checking mode. It took half an hour to go through this process where the computer said lots of things about not being able to read files, then it said it was fixing some things, then it said it was deleting some things.

I thought this was fixing the problem. But now when i turn it on it just immediately goes to the start in safemode/start windows normally screen and no matter what i choose it freezes on that screen.

I've tried inserting my windows disk and tried to boot from that, but it just almost immediately goes to the safemode/windows normally screen. It doesn't even sound like it is giving itself a chance to boot from cd.

Is there anything else I can try? I really don't want to loose whats on my hard drive.

thanks in advance

[Devasis]

Confirm that your CMOS/BIOS settings are correct.You can use Device Manager to examine and change software-configurable devices. If your hardware device uses jumper pins or dip switches, you must configure the device manually.For additional information about how to troubleshoot device conflicts by using Device Manager, Got to Microsoft article 310126 in the "Recommended Knowledge Base articles" section. For additional information about how to troubleshoot unknown devices that are listed in Device Manager, see article 314464 in the "Recommended Knowledge Base articles" section.You can use the System Restore tool to return your computer to a previous working state. System Restore takes a "snapshot" of critical system files and some program files and stores this information as restore points. You can use these restore points to return Windows XP to a previous state.