I've got a Dell XPS MF1530 laptop with Windows Vista Home Premium. I was watching TV programme (Top Gear, nothing dodgy

Upon turning on again, Dell bios screen appears as normal but then am faced with a blinking cursor and nothing else. Tried repairing startup with Vista CD, same story, tried restoring the system using a system restore point and it went through the motions but once it was finished it said something akin to "system could not be restored from restore point as cannot write file which is already there" Also used the memory checker and it says everything is fine.
I've made sure nothing else has been plugged in either, nowt but the charger.
So i can see the hard drive in system restore and call up past restore points so i'm hoping it's maybe something to do with the boot data on the hard drive that's corrupt/missing and not complete hard drive failure.
Most of my programs and documents and programs are backed up on an external hd thanfully but there are a few bits and bobs that i had been working on which i'm worried i've lost. I'm a musician and was working on some new music so starting music from scratch is no fun! Even if i can retrieve those i'd be happy enough, i dont mind a fresh install but i'm also recording this weekend so need something up and running by then!
So just wondering where i could go from here?
Any help is appreciated hugely!
Edited by Adamuko, 25 January 2011 - 04:41 AM.