I have an older HP desktop that continually reboots when I try to turn it on. I get a black screen and it gives me options of starting windows normally, safe mode, safe mode with networking, last known configuration. For every option I pick, nothing works. It just continunally reboots over and over again.

It's my kids computer, but it does have some pics and stuff that I would like to get off of it. If I do a system restore, or configuration, is that going to wipe out all the data I have saved.

It's an HP 2.6 ghz
512 MB
120GB
Windows XP, not vista

It's a pretty basic computer, about 5 years old. I would just chuck it, but I want to be sure I get the data off it. I have not added any hardware, and wouldn't have a clue on how to do it. I am not computer savvy at all other than the basics, but any help anyone could provide would be greatly appreciated.

Remove the old hard drive and put it aside... Get a new drive and install it. Install Windows and go to HP's support site and download and install the chipset, video, audio and network drivers for your HP model. After the computer is up and running, install the old drive as a "slave" and recover any data you need from the slave drive