Startup Repair issue. Is my laptop history?

[itsgk]

Hi all, I'd really appreciate any and all information anyone has that might lead me to a solution to this problem.

I own a Toshiba mini NB255 with the Windows 7 Starter that came packaged with it. I was clicking through some files, hit the escape key and it completely froze up. The cursor locked, control alt delete yielded nothing, closing the laptop wouldn't even put it in sleep mode, it just stayed on the screen it was on when it froze. I'm no computer genius so I did what I thought was the only available option and held down the power to force a shut down. When I rebooted my laptop it went past the Toshiba screen, and then it goes to Startup Repair and tells me it's attempting to fix problems and it may take a few minutes. Well I let it sit for 2 hours and it just stays on the Startup Repair screen appearing like it's doing something, but obviously something is very wrong.

This laptop is pretty vital to me, I'm a college student, and if someone could help me out of this jam or even just tell me I need a new system I'd be forever grateful.

 

[usasma]

Let's start by trying this:

H/W Diagnostics:
Please start by running these bootable hardware diagnostics:
Memory Diagnostics (read the details at the link)
HD Diagnostic (read the details at the link)

 

[itsgk]

Slight problem. My netbook has no CD drive and I didn't feel shelling out a lot for an external drive was necessary. I'm really regretting skimping on features for price now.

 

[PooMan UK]

Hiya Pal and welcome to the forums.
You can pick up external DVD drives nowadays for less than £18 ($30) (soz don't know what country you live in) ... but I suppose it depends on how important it is for you to recover your system

ps. have a looky here recover NB255 series netbook factory settings

 

[itsgk]

Thank you very much kind sir. I'm in Massachusetts USA btw. That link you posted seems like exactly what I am capable of doing right now. Is there any way to avoid erasing all the data on my hard drive, or a way of recovering it? Because losing all my data would reaaallllyy suck.

 

[usasma]

Using the USB DVD drive won't erase all your data. But, if your hard drive is dying you'll find that each and every access of the hard drive decreases the chances of successfully recovering your data.

That being said, the most effective solution would be to boot from a "Live" CD and then immediately attempt to transfer your data onto external media (DVD's, flash drive, external HDD, etc). I'd suggest either the free Ultimate Boot CD, or a Live Linux distribution - both are free with a Google search.