PC won't start properly, hard drive fried?

[makeascene2010]

I know my way around computers decently but this has me at a loss. Also, I'm new here so try not to judge too harshly! 
When I start up my desktop It flashes the "Acer" start up screen but then goes straight to this black screen which I'll attach here. Tells me to ctrl+alt+del it and reboot and it's this never ending cycle of black screening me. My best guess is the hard drive is screwed up, I have a toddler that loves to bang on things so maybe he broke something... is this an easy and cheap fix? I had to sell my alienware laptop a few months back and now everything is dying out on me, life isn't fair >.<
Acer
Windows 7 home premium 64-bit
AMD Athlon IIX2 255 Dual-core processor
 4gb DDR3 memory
1TB Hard drive
NVIDIA GEFORCE 9200
That's all the information I have on it seeing as I can't access anything really.
Any ideas on what to do with it would be greatly appreciated.

[attachment deleted by admin to conserve space]

[camerongray]

That certainly does sound like the hard drive, best thing to do would be to find out who made the hard drive (there will be a sticker on the drive) and download/run their diagnostic software to test the hard drive.  For example, if the hard drive is made by "Seagate" then you need the "Seatools" diagnostics, if it is made by "Western Digital" you would need the "Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostic".

A replacement hard drive is likely to cost anything from $30 upwards depending on the size of hard drive you want.

You would then just need to swap the hard drives and then reinstall Windows onto the new drive.

Alternatively you may want to get quotes from local PC repair places to do it for you - If you do go down this route, get multiple quotes from different places, don't just go with the first one you see.

[makeascene2010]

Thanks for the quick reply! I'll run the diagnostics, I'm pretty sad about all the things not backed up I'm probably going to lose, but live and learn. I'll come back with what I find out with the diagnostics. I can't find the disks that came with the PC which would be helpful, but I'll see how this goes.

[SuperDave]

If you wish to create this disk you will be able to access all that important data from the computer.

Download the OTLPE Standard REATOGO Windows Recovery Environment.

• Place a blank CD-R disc in to your CD burning drive.
• Download OTLPEStd.exe and double-click on it to burn to a CD using an ISO Burner. One can be found here.
  
• Reboot your system using the boot CD you just created.
• Note : If you do not know how to set your computer to boot from CD follow the steps here
  
• Your system should now display a REATOGO-X-PE desktop.
• Double-click on the OTLPE icon.
  
• When asked "Do you wish to load the remote registry", select Yes
  
• When asked "Do you wish to load remote user profile(s) for scanning", select Yes
  
• Ensure the box "Automatically Load All Remaining Users" is checked and press OK
  
• OTL should now start. Change the following settings
  
• Change Drivers to Non-Microsoft
  
• Press Run Scan to start the scan.
  
• When finished, the file will be saved  in drive C:\_OTL\MovedFiles
  
• Copy this file to your USB drive if you do not have internet connection on this system
• Please post the contents of the OTL.txt file in your reply.