[poker]

You have another option as well. If you remove your hard drive and take it to a friend or relative that knows a little about computers, have then set the drive as a slave drive and copy all your files onto a DVD. If they can do this, your hard drive is not the issue and could just be software.
Then just reinstall your hard drive back in your computer and format it and install a fresh copy of your OS. When your done, just slip the DVD in and copy all files into a new folder (name the folder anything you like). You'll have a fresh install of the OS and also have all your files/pictures/etc you want to keep.