COMPAQ Laptop won't complete boot to Win XP

COMPUTER: Compaq Presario 2100 Laptop running Win XP, Svc Pack 2.

For no apparent reason, the computer malfunctioned, and when booting, goes through the following sequence:

1. The COMPAQ screen—blank screen with COMPAQ in middle.

2. Error Msg: We are sorry for the inconvenience, but Windows didn’t start successfully. A recent Hardware or software change might have caused this…and goes on to advise that if I don’t know what might have caused it, to choose to boot normally. Or I could arrow up to select to boot in Safe Mode, or Safe Mode with Command Line. No matter which one I choose, the following occurs:

3. I get the Win opening screen

4. A couple of clicks in the computer and it shuts down. As it shuts down, a blue screen with some message flashed monentarily, but I can’t catch what it says.

I tried to boot in Safe mode manually (f8) boot no matter which of the options I choose after the Safe screen choices come up, the above sequence takes place.

I hit ESC during boot (or was it f2?), anyway, I got to Setup screen and performed the Drive Test, and got a “Fail 1 – 7” message.

So I changed the boot sequence to the CD, hoping I could boot from the repair disk, but the above sequence again took place.

Is there anything else I should do or check before changing the hard drive? Can a repair shop re-write the boot area? And BTW, if I swap the hard drive, do all drives come with standard boot sequences? I mean, if I boot from the CD containing the replacement software, will it load the factory provided software?

Please advise…

harveywaz