Windows7 seroius booting issues - doesn't want to play at all.

[MaillotRojoPan]

dd's laptop, where it's a black screen.

I've got in with the F8 key and been through the menu available - safe mode, disable auto-start, system repair etc. Each time the screen shows 'windows loading files', then the slim box with the green bands running through as if it was loading, and then nothing. Ends with a grey-patterned screen but no booting being done.

I've searched on-line but the solutions all assume I've been successful on the F8 options. So at this stage I still don't know if it's a hard or soft ware issue.

Is there anything else I might try before assuming the disk is corrupted, terminally please??

tia

Do you have a recovery disk? Or a windows install disk?

If you have either of those try to boot from them.

yes, thanks for that cdtaylornats - dd has 'lost' any disk she had for the laptop, and I'm thinking I've been through the keyboard options.
Do you know if you can buy these disks and they'd be common for any laptop? i.e. it doesn't have to be the original disk for that device?

You could use any win 7 install disk. However it's expensive to buy. It would be cheaper to take it to a local repairer. If you're reasonably techy and have access to another computer running win 7 you could try making a recovery disk, booting from that and checking whether the laptops hard drive is readable. At the very least if you can see the disk at that point you can copy off files.

I've got a win7 laptop, with a disk I'm not sure is for this laptop.

I'm not techy at all, BUT..I'm not entirely stupid, and can follow specific instructions! I've a few empty DVD disks so will delve into the web, do as I'm told, and try making a recovery disk from it, and see what happens?