Operating System Not Found Problems

[Dr.KnowNothin]

My laptop is a Compaq Presario 2500 that runs Windows XP SP1 Home Edition. One night when I turned my laptop on, it wouldn't load the user accounts that are on the laptop. The laptop freezes when I click on one of the names. Sometimes it restarts. So I was trying to remember on how to boot on Safe Mode, I pressed F12 instead of F8 and the laptop said the OS was not found. After that I found my XP CD and inserted it in. I did the fixmbr thing and it solved the Operating System Not Found error, but it still can't load any of the accounts.

Is it possible to fix this? If not is there a way to still save my files? If so, how? Because I can't load any of the accounts to save my files onto something else. I bought a hard drive, but before this incident, whenever I hooked up the hard drive to any of my computers, it would freeze and so would the computers, so now I need to get another hard drive.

 

[hudihoo]

since you fixed the OS thing can you still the accounts or did they dissapear completly if you can still see them i may be able to help. If the accounts are not seen when the computer is loaded then they are gone forever

 

[Dr.KnowNothin]

Yes they do appear. When I click on them they load and the desktop appears. Just not the icons and task bar. When I do crtl, alt, delete all the processes are running. Then after a few minutes nothing else happens or the laptop restarts.