Laptop won't start!

[rubik101]

After a couple of years regular use, my Dell Laptop refuses to start. I get as far as the black option screen where you can choose to start in 'Safe Mode', 'Last good mode' etc but whatever I choose, it reverts to the same page. I have powered off and removed the battery, still no luck.
Any bright ideas anyone?
Many thanks,
Rubik

[Saab Dastard]

Getting as far as the startup recovery menu suggests that the problem may be file corruption rather than a failing hard disk - of course there may still be a HDD problem, but at least the drive is operating sufficiently to start Windows.

Your priority should be to ensure your data is safe - if you haven't got recent backups then go get yourself an external USB caddy for 2.5" IDE disks, remove the drive from the laptop, place it in the caddy and copy your data to another PC. Assuming you can!

You can do something similar with a Linux CD boot (knoppix or similar) that allows you to mount the HDD and copy data to a USB or network device, assuming you have one.

Once your data is safe then restore the disk and work on the problem - boot from the OS disk and attempt a recovery or repair.

By all means run diagnostics and disk repair utilities after the backup is successful.

SD

[rubik101]

Many thanks to you both. I will try the second option and let you know!