The computer is an HP Pavilion 511w. I bought it in 2002. I'm completely positive, but I think a virus got ahold of my computer. The ironic thing is, I was running a virus scan when it shut down. After restarting it, a black screen popped up and gave four different options for restarting (restart normally, restart using last good known configuration, restart with command promt, and I can't think of the last one), but all options led to a blue screen that told you how to fix the problem, but it never worked.
I ended up on the HP Support website and it said when starting up, to press F10 repeatedly and it will lead you to perform a system restore. We finally got it to work, and it took my computer back to factory settings, but without my documents. It's been several months since I copied my files for safekeeping, so I would really, really like to have my most recent files. If you can help in any way possible I would really appreciate it. Let me know if you still need more information; I'll get it to you.
Thanks again!