vista boot problem

[netheo86]

mate bought a toshiba satellie p200-1 jv few months back and it now won't boot. Gets past the post but then get a blinking cursor and goes no further not seen any BSOD which is strange.
Have found my old xp disc and it wil boot fine to the point where it asks you if you want to repair or install etc but i don't want to go any further. any ideas on what wrong?

i'm thinking HDD but seems a bit soon for that to go wrong

Also i've got vista on my laptop can i create a generic bootable cd that will be able to reapir his machine? or would the disc only reapir my system if there are errors?

thanks for any replies

 

[beermonster]

i would run a program such as Drive fitness test on it, this will do a non destructive test, then take it from there, if faulty you'll have to book a repair, if not then its recovery with the supplied dvds

 

[Le Samourai]

Unplug USB devices if there are any connected. It might be trying to boot from either a USB HDD or flash drive.

If it's a USB HDD, then remove it from the boot options in the bios.

A U3 flash drive was giving me the same problem today and was fine once it was unplugged.