Windows XP won't boot up!!!

[GreenNeub]

Hey guys, my bro has a HP Pavilion laptop with Windows XP home edition installed on it. After the HP boot screen, the screen changes to a black screen with the message,

"We apologize for the inconvenience, but Windows did not start successfully. A recent hardware or software change might have caused this. If your computer stopped responding, restarted unexpectedly, or was automatically shut down to protect files or folders, choose last known configuration to revert to the most recent settings that worked. If a previous startup attempt was interrupted due to a power failure or because the Power or Reset button was pressed, or if you aren't sure what caused the problem, choose start windows normally."

There was also the option to boot into Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking, and Safe Mode with Command Prompt. I've tried all of these. When trying to "Start Windows Normally" or "Last Known Configuration", the Windows XP boot screen starts loading windows, then there's a quick flash of a blue screen with some information on it that i can't read because it only flashes for half a second, and then the computer stops/crashes again/and attempts to restart again. I'm guessing that this is the "Blue Screen of Death" that everyone talks about. There's another problem, my brother never made the HP System Restore disks that you're supposed to make when you first take the laptop out of the box. So doing a simple reformat is out of the question.

My brother says that he was listening to music on Itunes, and then went to close iTunes, and the music started to skip all of a sudden, and then the program froze, so he just hit the Power button on the laptop to shut it off. The next time he turned it on, this boot/crash cycle started up.

I've already got a copy of the Ultimate Boot Cd, but I don't really know how to use the utilities or diagnostics on it. I'm pretty new to this stuff, but I'd really like to give it a shot and fix it myself. Can someone help me out??? He does kinda need this for school. I'd like to be able to return the computer to the way it was if possible, and if not, at least be able to have WIndows XP up and running again. Sorry about the long post guys. Thanks for your time.

[glc]

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...cname=bph07145

There is a good chance the hard drive is dying though. The UBCD can be used to run diagnostics on it, if you do not know the brand of hard drive in it, use the Hitachi Drive Fitness Test.

[GreenNeub]

Thanks GLC. I reformatted and created the System Recovery disks as well. I also determined that the hard drive was a seagate momentus, so I used the SeaTools diagnostic scan on the UBCD. Looks like it all checked out okay. Thanks for your help.