After the computer froze we turned it off and back on. After loading it came up with this dos screen that reads: 'Strike F1 to retry boot, Strike F2 to set up utitity' When we hit F1 it comes up with the same thing. cant get into safe mode. When i hit F8 it makes a beeping noise and wont go to that menu. Worst of all this computer has very important files so wiping hard drive and re-installing windows is not an option. Any help would be very much appreciated... Josh

"...this computer has very important files so wiping hard drive and re-installing windows is not an option" Wiping & reinstalling is NOT how to repair a problem anyway. Too many people are WAY too quick to format. This does NOT sound like a software problem...it's hardware problem! Learn how to TROUBLESHOOT!

I know that its just i have seen it as the main suggestion from many other people on other sites and so i thought that I should make that known so people dont suggest that. Josh

"dos screen that reads: 'Strike F1 to retry boot, Strike F2 to set up utitity" That is the BIOS screen not DOS and you need to troubleshoot hardware problems at a pre O/S level, this is not software par-se

u can recover all ur files with this very handy utility: www.ubcd4win.com As for the troubleshooting, sounds like the system isnt booting properly. open up the case and clean out all the dust...make sure all ur fans r working. i dont know how many times ive seen that hapen only to find out it was dust stopping the system from booting. Zo

If bios settings screen comes you may wanna load defaults in bios first,or reset bios per manual instructions.Or maybe go to load last known good config.Kudos go to zcubed for actually tryin to help instead of jumpin to unnecessary critisism ie; learn how to troubleshoot.Also do you have a boot or rescue disc for this machine? I,d try that first.You can put in xp disc, start machine so it loads basic drivers but do not do the install, see what it does then.Good luck Josh