You can save data on the hard drive by putting it onto a second machine and copying stuff off.

Your main problem, however, requires a repair means and that comprises the XP CD.

How did your PC get into this state? Is there any history to assist diagnosis?

hi, have you installed any new software or hardware it might cause the problem..or either it could be a PSU faulty, but anyway..try solving first through your software..it could be a corrupt registry.. check this one out from Microsoft...to recover corrupt registry in XP..goodluck...
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

recently a wireless mouse was installed and itunes 7 was installed but both worked. Then my daughter was using the computer and either it froze while she was using it, or she tried to shutdown and it froze (I wasn't there). Her wallpaper was up, but no icons. After trying ctrl/alt/del (which did nothing), we powered it off and viola, something corrupted and here we are. I will try the "recover from corrupted registry" steps from microsoft as recommended. Where can I get a "windows xp startup disk" or "windows xp cd"?

Do you get a message that tells you that your computer is reastarting

Oh you can also temporarliy abort the current shutdown start--->Run--->shutdown \a

Ah - letting a child onto your precious PC; potentially disastrous! Heavens knows what she did to inadvertently brought down to your PC. Of course, that may not have happened and you have a genuine system fault - but the balance of probability lies with my suggestion.

This would mean a trojan or virus brought in froma dodgy web site and, if you can wipe everything and rebuild Windows, it's your safest bet since clearing this nasty stuff out takes a lot longer. BTW, what protection against virus/trojans did you have installed on your PC? And was the protective software turned on?

So, a system restore disk came with your PC - usually the case If not, your stuffed and you'd have to go out and buy a copy of Windows to use for your re-build.

Good luck.

Have you tried doing a system restore? This can help you to restore the last known good configuration for your computer.

Thanks for the info and suggestions. I think the registry is corrupted. It makes sense since it can't quite get itself booted. Or it could be a virus I guess. So I'll use the microsoft instructions for replacing the registry. At least I can get it booted and see what's up. Thanks.