Windows 7: windows 7 crash

I have a 2-year old 64 bit HP computer running an early windows 7. All of a sudden windows refuses to boot sending me to a windows start up repair program, but it does nothing either. I have no CDs - windows 7 was a free upgrade downloaded off the web to replace the Vista that was in the computer when I purchased it. I do have some sort system back up on a flash drive (big file > 5 gig), but when I tried to connect to it, got an error message saying the drive wasn't partitioned???

What can I try next?

Can you start it up in safe mode? If you can, try a repair there. Also, there should be certain keys that you can press before it boots up that will give you some repair options. It might be the F11, F8 or one of those keys. But there are a lot of members who know a lot more that I do, so maybe one them will have a better suggestion. Good luck.

yep, tried all that - no go....

In your situation (no CD/DVDs) an option I would be looking at is to buy a retail upgrade. You should have the old Vista COA sticker on the side of the HP. You can easily clean install to a new HDD if required.