Windows doesn't start normally. After the Windows progress bar, there is just a black screen. If I try safemode, It gets hung up on various XXX.sys files. I have disabled 4 of these files (using my windows restore disk), hoping to remove the block they were causing, only to find another one blocking safemode, even if it is one that was no problem before. The IT guy at work offered to give me a linux boot disk so I could at least access my hard drive to retrieve data, but I'm still hoping I can salvage this machine.
If it matters, it's a roughly 10 year old Dell Dimension 8200.