xp wont boot!!!!

[ngowdar]

oh no!!! i turned on my dell dimension 8200 today, and a horrible thing happened. It gave a message that windows did not start properly, and offered 5 options on how to proceed:

1) safe mode
2) safe mode w/ networking
3) safe mode with ??? ( i cant remember)
4) last known good configuration
5) start windows normally

any option i pick results in the same, the computer reboots, and arrives at the same message. I cannot boot windows.

I called Dell, and they instructed me to do a repair installation using the windows XP cd. The rep said the process would take some time, and he would call me back in an hour. However, after a few minutes into the repair, a message stated that setup could not "set the windows xp configuration" due to an internal setup error. Now I'm frustrated because I have to wait an hour for that man to call back, so i came here

What should i do? It seems like the only other viable option is to do a clean reinstall, but that would mean the loss of all my files. I have some backups, but i want reinstallation only as a last resort. Is there anything to do?

[Blakhart]

Slave the drive to another computer to save what you want. Then rma the dell. I just recently packaged up a dell to rma it for the exact same reason.