Help booting my computer

[bobbykid34]

Hello,

     I have an emachines t6424 media center pc.  Let me preface this by saying I am writing this on another computer.  A few days ago, I turned the computer on and as it got to the windows welcome screen, it would just display a black screen and not proceed any further.  I tried a few more times to turn it on, with the same results.  I then was able to boot in safe mode, and there saved all my pictures, files etc, figuring system restore was my only hope.  I then inserted the system restore cd, and it copied files until it got to 36% and displayed the following message.

the file:

from 'preload'  c:\PRELOAD\BASE_01.inp

base_01.inp   cannot be recovered!

my question is why does this happen with the recovery cd?  The computer was purchased with xp preinstalled so I do not have any other disc other than the recovery one.  What is the problem, and what can I do to fix it?

Thanks,

Bob

[Broni]

Run hard drive diagnostics: http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287
Make sure, you select tool, which is appropriate for the brand of your hard drive.
Depending on the program, it'll create bootable floppy, or bootable CD.
If downloaded file is of .iso type, use ImgBurn: http://www.imgburn.com/ to burn .iso file to a CD (select "Write image file to disc" option), and make the CD bootable.

NOTE. If your hard drive is made by Toshiba, unfortunately, you're out of luck, because Toshiba doesn't provide any diagnostic tool.