Acer Aspire 6920G laptop startup problem

[laptopproblem]

I was prompted to update my adobe reader as it was out of date so I began downloading the new version. When the download reached 96% it then began to freeze and would not continue for over 5 minutes. At this point I then lost the toolbar on the bottom of the screen and the laptop began to freeze. I turned the laptop off by holding down the power button as I was unable to do anything.
Now when I try to turn the laptop back on I get the message 'Wondows Error Recovery' and the option to 'start windows normally' or 'launch startup repair'. I selected 'launch startup repair' and the laptop then begins to attempt to start but then goes back to the 'Windows Error Recovery' page. This also happens when I select to 'start windows normally'. I have also tried starting the laptop up in safe mode but again the same thing happens. It will not load up windows and keeps restarting.
Could you please tell me how to fix this. I have some important documents on the laptop which I don't want to lose. If I restore the laptop to factory settings I will lose this data so is there a way I can at least take the information off before restoring the laptop?
Thanks for any help.

[patio]

What version of Windows ? ?


As for data retrieval with a laptop drive your best bang for the Buck would be a USB enclosure...get one with it's own power source..ie: AC adapter...approx 25 Bucks.

[laptopproblem]

It is on windows vista

[laptopproblem]

What version of Windows ? ?


As for data retrieval with a laptop drive your best bang for the Buck would be a USB enclosure...get one with it's own power source..ie: AC adapter...approx 25 Bucks.

Will I still be able to get the data off of the laptop with a USB enclosure even though i can't actually get the laptop to start up and access my profile on there?

[patio]

Yes...the drive doesn't need to be bootable into Windows to copy/save your data...

[laptopproblem]

ok thanks, does it sound like it is a windows problem? obviously if it is a hard drive problem I wont be able to use the USB enclosure to retrieve the data but do you think that it is not a hard drive problem and therefore I should be able to get the data off?
Thanks

[jchunk]

if you have install disk why not pop it in and try repair? Does it say any were that ntfs.loader is compressed?