Cheers Matt. I did look at a boot menu, F12 on this one which only showed the diagnostics. I've only ever done a full install so not used to recovery/install partitions.
Just had a look on the Dell website and it is from the F8 menu. Repair computer. That doesn't work though. It says loading files then goes back to the menu.
Are you able to run chkdsk repairs on the hdd by booting from an installer disk?
Tried booting from the Win 7 disc and using the command prompt. Chkdsk gave an unspecified error and the startup repair said it couldn't complete.
tried that FIXMBR thing and the other one I can't remember?
No. If it is trying to boot but getting stuck would that work? Worth a try. What's the other one? Might try another boot CD or putting the HDD from the laptop in my computer and see if I can scan it on there.
Then I'm guessing either the physical disk, or the partition map is hosed. All that's left is to attempt data recovery from a linux boot cd, or put it in an external enclosure and try to mount it on another pc. You could then try to reformat the disk, in my experience it is probably a waste of time.
That was my guess. I did boot a random Linux live CD I had lying around and could access the pictures on there so hopefully the stuff they want I can get off.
The other one is fixboot I think.