Black screen with blinking cursor at startup, repair and recovery did nothing.

I have a 2.5 year old Toshiba Satellite L300-04N, which has decided to crash during exams. :D

Earlier today when I brought it out of sleep everything was frozen. I couldn't get into Task Manager so I turned it off using the power button.

When I turned it back on, it said that there may be disk errors it wanted to do a disk check (I don't remember the exact message). I've had this problem before, but usually it does the disk check and all is fine. This time it never started the actual disk check, so after waiting a while I hit the power button again.

Now when I try to start it, I get the Toshiba start up screen but then it gets stuck on a black screen with a flashing cursor in the top left corner. When I press any key it makes angry bleeping noises at me.

I've tried doing a startup repair (a couple of times) with the recovery disk. The first time it did a repair, now when I do a repair it tells me it can't detect a problem. I tried to do a system restore, but it told me there are no restore points. I searched the forums for a while, but I couldn't find any other ideas.

I am more or less competent with computers, but I don't know a lot of computer jargon. Thanks in advance for your help!

EDIT: I also tried F8 at startup. Did nothing.

Your computer did a repair, so at what stage is it at?
Does Vista boot, do you get the flashing cursor?

The first time I tried it, I completed the repair and restarted the computer. It didn't fix the problem though. I tried the repair again, but it tells me there's no problem and won't do the repair.

There was a change after the first repair, though. The first time I did it there was no operating system listed and I just clicked "Next". Now when I go to System Recovery Options the operating system says (recovered), with a partition size of 229298 MB and location C: .

I don't think Windows loads at all when I turn it on. The Toshiba startup screen comes on, but after that all I get is the black screen with a text cursor (like the one in you see in DOS). I don't get to the Microsoft loading screen.

Have a read here Black screen with blinking cursor after Toshiba lo... - Toshiba Forums

From what I understand, the first solution from that thread is a startup repair (which I tried already) and the second is restoring the computer to factory settings.

I have the recovery discs, so I could do a full restore (and I have twice already this year!). The problem is that (1) I haven't backed up some of my files, and (2) my computer would be out of commission for the next couple days while I install/update all the software. Normally that's not an issue, but I have two chemistry exams in the next two days. O_O

Is there anything else I can do that doesn't involve losing all my files, or is that my only option?

Thanks!

Update: My files are still there. When I click "Load Drivers" at the System Recovery Options window I can see my C: drive and the folders on it. I can't see the files themselves, but I can copy a folder to a flash drive and transfer the files to another computer. Would this suggest it's not an issue with the hardrive?

Hello when you boot the system do you get the page on boot startup F11 just as an example to where you can hit the key to go into say restore. I will send you the tutorial for you to read on your options..

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/194765-system-recovery-options.html

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/76905-system-restore-how.html

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/66971-system-restore.html

I can get there, but I can't do a system restore. When I try to do one it says there are no restore points, which is strange because there should be some.