System crash, problems with running startup repair

First off, I apoloise if I fail to follow the posting guidelines or don't provide enough information, as I don't frequent these kind of forums and am not familiar with many of the terms used here. I'm also not a native english speaker. Since I lack the vocabluary and knowledge to locate and explain my problem, I'll try describing it the best I can.

I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium on an ASUS UL30J. The computer was bought little over half a year ago, and up till now I've never experienced any major problems.

Today the computer crashed while I was using Photoshop CS4 64bit. Google Chrome was the only other active program. This has happened once before, and that time I think it was from overheat. This time I was taken to a bluescreen (which did not happen the first time),and while I tried to locate any information on the nature of the problem, I couldn't find anything.

The first time I attempted to start the computer the screen remained black for a long time. Then I got a brief glimpse of the blue Windows screen before it shut down. The next time I was given a set of options, of which "startup repair" was recomended. I tried running it and it wanted to do a "system image recovery", but could not find a system image. I did make a backup of the system on DVD when I first got the computer, which I assume could be used. However, I assume I would then lose all my data. Thus, I would rather use "system restore", but when I try to run that I am told to restart the computer and select an operating system to restore; something that either cannot be found, or I'm doing it wrong.

I've tried searching through Windows help files and forum threads for similar problems, but the information is either to basic to help me in this specific case, or too advanced for me to understand. This is also made harder my the fact I don't know what's wrong with my computer, and because I have only basic knowledge about computers I'm afraid I'll further mess things up if I try fixing it without knowing what I'm doing.


I will be eternally grateful for any help with fixing this problem, explaining it and what could possibly have caused it, and if any further information is needed I'll try my best to provide it.

Can you get into Safe Mode for this computer? On startup you press F8 until you get the boot options screen. Once in Safe Mode find "System Restore" and look for the most recent Restore Point and try that.

Safe Mode was a visible option when I first selected Startup Repair, but when that failed and I restarted the computer it was no longer shown.

Hmm in your post you said you did not actually proceed with Startup Repair. But F8 no longer takes you to Safe Mode...Start Windows Normally? What DOES the system do/show now if you reboot?