Laptop in question: HP Pavilion DV2000, running Windows Vista Home (I think 32-bit).

Today, I was using my laptop, running on battery power only. Unfortunately, the battery no longer locks. I moved the laptop and the battery fell out. Naturally, as was not plugged in to an external power source, my laptop shut off.

Upon re-inserting the battery (and plugging in the laptop to an external power source for good measure), I received the "Windows Error Recovery" screen, presenting me with:

SAFE Mode
Safe Mode with Networking
Safe Mode with Command Prompt
Start Windows Normally

I tried "Start Windows Normally", and after a LOADING screen (Microsoft Corporation at bottom), then the screen went black. I could see the mouse on screen, yet Vista would not boot up.

I manually shut down my computer and this time selected "Safe Mode": same thing, loading screen, then screen goes black with mouse.

I then hit "F7" to get to the "Advanced Boot Options":

Repair your computer
Safe mode
Safe mode with networking
Safe mode with command prompt
Enable boot logging
Enable low resolution video (640 × 480)
Last Known Good Configuration (advanced)
Directory services restore mode
Debugging mode
Disable automatic restart on system failure
Disable Driver Signature Enforcement
Start Windows normally

I tried the options in BOLD, and the same thing happened each time: loading screen, then screen goes black with mouse, Vista does not load.

I also tried the "Repair your computer" OPTION, which got me to the "System Recovery Options" screen where I didn't know how to proceed...(so I simply restarted, never actually getting to the loading screen).

The only other possible thing was the fact that I had unchecked a few Nvidia options in "Startup" using "msconfig" (all of which were not necessary on startup). However, after doing this, I was able to restart the computer twice without any problems (before the battery fell out), so I'm pretty sure this isn't the problem.

I'm so lost!Does someone know anything about "Startup Repair" and how I would go about it?

Plus, does "Startup Repair" or "System Restore" leave me at risk for losing files? I ask simply because I have a lot of files which I have not backed up -- and I don't WANT "System Restore" to take my computer back too far (assuming before I downloaded my pictures, music, etc.)System Restore will only affect Windows files and nothing else....
Startup Repair will wipe all your Data and apps and take the machine back to Day One status...1) I was told that Vista creates restore points automatically at regular intervals (around every 24 hours of use) as well as whenever updates are installed. So I was surprised that when I went to System Restore, I HAD NO RESTORE POINTS...!? So I got stuck there.

2) I then tried to acess "Startup Repair" by inserting the DVD that came with my laptop. However, mine is a "Recovery DVD" and did not have the option for "Startup Repair", only to recover the entire system. So I got stuck there as well.

3) I even tried checking out the "Repair your computer" option in the "Advanced Boot Options" menu [F7 to get Windows Boot Manager, then F8 to get "Advanced Boot Options"]. "Repair your computer" then brought me to "System Recovery Options", where it gave me the options:

-"To access recovery options log on as a local user."
-"To access the command prompt as well, log on using an administrator account."

4) For the heck of it, I even did the diagnostic that checks the hard drive for error (found under "Windows Boot Manager"), and when I came back to see what had happened, it had completed and restarted the computer.

I really don't want to lose my files...If you can wait awhile Broni and a few others here have had experience with the Vista repair process...i have yet to TRY it out.