Start up problems with Sony Vaio

[sim129]

Hi

I am new to this so hope someone can help...

The other day my Sony Vaio froze and I had to perform a shut down by pressing and holding the start button.

When I restarted the laptop windows failed to start. The laptop is running really slow...

It then came up with:

"Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause"

Start in safe mode or normal - I clicked normal and after about 30 seconds (showing the microsoft bar) it then went back to the above screen.

I then started in safe mode. It took me to the normal system screen - after ages!!

When i check for faults it comes up saying "attempting to repair disks, this may take over an hour" - I left it for 30 hrs and it still shows the same thing??

I have tried system restore but it asks me to load drivers?? It cant find any drivers??

I have tried everything but it just doesnt seem to do anything....

When the laptop froze initially i had an internet usb stick attached, I think this has caused the problem but i just dont know how to get it to start up

HELP!!

[TristanPerry]

Have you had any issues with sporadic slow-downs or issues with boot-ups before?

To be honest this sounds like a hard drive issue (i.e. it might be failing)

The same thing happened to my Dell XPS laptop a couple of years ago - sometimes it'd go really slow and/or freeze up, then sometimes Windows wouldn't start/boot-up. Other times it'd be okay. Etc.

I doubt the USB stick is the issue - just in-case though, I assume you've tried removing it and trying again?

[sim129]

Thanks Tristan

Had absoloutely no problems in the past at all!!

Evereything has been fine....

It just wont let me do anything!

Do I need to replace hard drive? If so is it costly and easy to do?

Thanks in advance....