Phalconphixer
Seeing the person at the repair shop seems a good idea. I do not think all is lost at this stage.
My Vista sys (Age 7) was an emergency install from a recovery disk supplied with the computer. My system drive was in good shape a Segate 160 Gb SATA if this helps.
Un luckelley - The Hard disk may have been quietly failing for some time - PS I sympathise re the Dog hair problem.
The fact that you can at least get to the menu option means that you may be able to copy your critical data off the drive.
With help - use a "linux" boot CD disk to allow the system to boot the computer, the repair shop will have this and using a USB stick copy your vital data to USB.
As Mixture advises it looks as if the HD is failing. Do not keep re trying to boot from the HD - Time is of the essence.
CAT III