Black screen with a white underscore blinking..

Hi there,

I have a Dell laptop and as of last night all it has been doing is giving me a blinking white underscore on a black screen. I can access the f12 menu thing and using this special media thing (where i turn it on and i can access photos videos etc) i can get my files.. so obviously my harddrive is still oky (or at least my files are ok).

As for whats happening can any one offer any advice? I have read another thread in this thing about this same incident but the advice was really beyond my level of expertise (which is basic).

I am running Vista.. if that helps!

Susan
 
Something is causing the operating system to not load. It could be a bad file or some type of corruption on the hard drive. Have you tried doing a Vista Repair using the installation DVD?
 
I havent really tried anything because whilst I can still access my files via the media thing I want to save my harddrive before touching stuff! Without turning on, how can the installation CD work? Slash.. I will have to find it first haha

Does it sound like a quick fix error, or perhaps the computer has reached the end of its life?
 
If you have the DVD you can attempt a repair install which will leave your data the way it is. If you're able to access your files then see if you're able to copy them to a USB thumb drive or external hard drive for back up. If that doesn't work get a BartPE CD, Symantec Ghost 14/15 or Linux Live CD and copy the files from the hard drive.
 
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