hello - i was wondering if anyone can help. basically when I turn on my laptop it keeps going to the screen where it says windows has failed to start successfully and if i try to start using safe mode, or last known good configuration, or any of the other options, it keeps coming back to that screen.

I spoke to a tech guy from the company I bought it from and after we tried starting it up by alternating the memory cards, he suggested I use the windows xp disc to conduct a repair.

What I am wondering is that if i do a repair using the XP disc is it likely that I will lose my unsaved work whether it works or doesn't?

I know, I know, I should regularly save my work and I do, but the last time was a couple of months ago and I could lose a ton of stuff. This is the second problem i have had with this laptop and I am wondering if I should just send it back to them again rather than risk the xp repair option.

if it's not blatantly apparent I am a total noob when it comes to anything to do with computers, calculators, pretty much anything with buttons. :shakehead

Any advice would be much appreciated.