I'm running Win XP Professional. SP2 and security updates all up to date as far as I know. I have a 250 GB HD in 3 partitions. ~100, ~100, ~50. OS on the first one.

Anyway, after using the PC in the morning with no problems (crashes, freezes, whatever), I turned it on in the afternoon and it would not boot into windows. It went to the screen that offers Safe Mode (x3), Boot from last config..., and Boot normally. No matter which one of those I choose, it restarts. If I choose Safe Mode you see the files listed on the screen and then it reboots.

I have my old HD still in PC with XP Pro also installed on it. When I open "My Computer" in there, I see the 3 partitions. The 2nd and 3rd partitions are viewable, with labels and total/free space listed. The 1st partition, which is oddly labeled the I: drive (instead of D: or E shows nothing in the margin for total and free space. When I click on it, it says its not formatted and asks if I would like to do so now.

The last thing I did that morning, if it helps, was watch some videos on Google Video, which I do often.

If I had to settle for just being able to get some files off of it and then reinstalling windows, that would be ok. I'll check back in the afternoon and again tomorrow morning, any help would be greatly appreciated.

I would run the manufacturer's diagnostic on that hard drive.

Their web site will have a downloadable diagnostic to boot off a floppy disk.

Some also have repair options included.

You could also try moving the connection (to secondary Master for example).

Also you could try changing the DMA/PIO settings.

Device Manager > IDE/ATA ATAPI controllers > Advanced Settings

Hard Disk Analysis Tools - Major manufacturers

Thank you guys. I don't know why I hadn't considered a diagnostics program for the HD. I put in the CD that came with the HD and it found some bad sectors and repaired them. I'm back on it now. Is there something wrong with my HD that I should be concerned about, or just a random error? Anyway, thanks again, greatly appreciated.