Windows won't load!!

Hi all- hopefully someone can help me with this problem as it's vexed me for some days and people I've asked have no idea. When i restarted the computer a few days ago, i got an error saying something to the effect of "some files required by windows or a windows program have been deleted....check system.ini " and so on. At the bottom of the message it said "ontracks.386" (???). It tells me to hit any key and after that, it looks like it's going to boot in safe mode (my wallpaper comes up but in that 'safe' looking way) but then stops after 10sec and says "explorer... has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down ". When i hit OK, nothing happens. CTRL/ALT/Delete shows nothing in the task manager. It just stays like that indefinitely. If i restart, the cycle repeats.

Does anyone have any ideas?!?

Thanks so much in advance!

 

It really sounds like your drive is dying. But try booting up with computer with a boot floppy, and do this command at the prompt.
scandisk /all /autofix /surface
Then reinstall windows.