I need help with an older laptop

Ok here is whats going on, I have a Compaq presario 1640,

Im using a harddrive with win 2k and for some reason when i boot up, its gets as far as the "Staring Windows" Screen - and the white bars fill in al the way across, then it just stops doing much of anything. I've hit the F8 key to get into the troubleshotting menu, and none of the otions work, they all go back to the starting windows screen and do nothing, I havent installed anything new on it, so what could be the problem?

Failed hardware or failed software

You could start by testing the obvious hardware components that tend to die - the RAM and the hard drive.

Once the hardware checks out OK, you may want to look into recovering your documents and files and maybe repairing Windows or a clean reinstall.

HDD needs to be replaced. I had a user who's kids desktop did the same thing. Look for 40GB HDD to replace it with. Don't get anything higher...

Before you take any drastic measures as far as buying new hardware, try to boot to the Win2k installation disk. Enter the Recovery Console and when you reach the c:\ prompt type CHKDSK. let that utility run and then reboot. If that does not work, I would try to reformat the drive. If that does not work, then move on to getting a new drive.

If it hanging could be W2K has got corrupted
Could be the HDD
Could be something else..

Or try what we all have suggest above. If you want to save your data files you could use 2.5HD to 3.5HD converter which would go into a desktop where the CDRom ribbon is and use that to backup your data. If you're at place of business you can call up your helpdesk and they'll send a tech to you.