Windows Vista Boot Issue

My friend has an HP laptop with Windows Vista installed on it (I believe 64 bit) and recently, it has ceased to boot. (She suspects she may have shut it down improperly). The first loading bar appears, loads for a while, then a blank screen appears, and after a while, a cursor appears on said blank screen. It remains like this for (extrapolating here...) ever. /None/ of the F8 options yield any results, and in fact the vista recovery disc I tried had similar results. It came pre-installed so we don't have a vista DVD. I recognize the possibility that I may have to back her stuff up and re-install windows, but I'd like to exhaust all possible options before that. Also, being somewhat of a windows noob, can we use the same CD key if we need to reinstall it? Or must we obtain a new one from microsoft? Thanks

 

Hi and welcome to the BBS,

I will let you do the leg work, look up the model of the laptop at HP. They have good support, but your options may be limited. They tend to only offer running a re-image of the drive with their recovery system.

Back up the data first. If she doesn't have a backup system, now is the time to implement one. After backup you can try some possibilities.

Use the Product Key on the laptop if you need to. If you re-image the HP way, you probably won't need to "activate ".

See what HP offers by way of support for the situation. HP have forums, you could search or ask there.

Matt