andrewcc Wrote:i will be talking to him yes but i was hoping to get some more advice on this issue...... i really just want to know if my files will still be recoverable from the HDD or not....... i don't know where this problem came from because it randomly happened....... perhaps the area of the drive where the BIOS is stored is broken and the files are corrupt........ but if anyone knows what the problem could be i just want to know if the HDD is still alive enough to transfer files onto a new one.......

yeh get a live cd of xp preferably or geta non legit copy of xp  and install xp over your old partition if your can butm don't format your drive then acess all the files using that partition.

or........ do what i do
remove the hd from the laptop and plug it intom the pc as a second drive or use a hd case and access it via usb

Haven't read everything, but it's most likely a driver issue.  Can you boot into safe mode?
Otherwise, if reinstalling, then meh.