Can you get into your BIOS to run from the DVD? You can try this program.
Some have had to burn to a DVD, others can get it to run from a CD.
[url]http://neosmart.net/downloads/guides/Vista_Repair/Vista_Recovery_Disc.iso[/url]
You can go to the neosmart site for instructions.

"mcmcom" <mcmcom@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:69FA4587-94BC-4EDB-8964-5C6158FE1E8B@microsoft.com...[color=blue]
> no dice on the Shift F10.
> Spoke with HP Support. They say its a HD issue and i have to send it in
> for
> servicing. Of course i have critical information regarding my work on
> this
> hd and now have no way to recover it. I also got a vista CD from a friend
> and attempted to do the Repair option from it. VIsta install was
> undetected
> and i have no way to load drivers for my hard drive. :( So basically im
> screwed because HP decided to make very poorly written backup and recovery
> software.
>
> Heres how it works.
> 1. You can use their recovery software as long as you dont encrypt you
> drive.
> 2. Once you encrypt your drive you have to set a new restore point.
> 3. You are unable to set a restore point (unknown error) once the drive
> is
> encrypted.
> 4. You try to recover your computer to factory defaults and are unable to
> perform a restore until you disable drive encryption.
> 5. You cannot disable drive encryption until you can boot into your OS.
> 6. You cannot boot into your OS if you cannot get the boot options to
> ever
> display!
>
> WTF!?
>
> "John Barnes" wrote:
>[color=green]
>> Shift key and F10 may get you to a command prompt.
>>
>>
>>
>> "mcmcom" <mcmcom@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:56EEDEA7-1F02-43F5-A8D4-C0AAE63834BB@microsoft.com...[color=darkred]
>> > hi all,
>> > i have an HP Compaq 8710p laptop that is about 10 months old. For no
>> > apparent reason yesterday it just froze up and when i re-started it it
>> > took
>> > me directly into Startup Repair. Since then all it will do is boot up
>> > into
>> > startup repair and fix the same issue, then re-start itself and go back
>> > into
>> > startup repair, fixing the same issue over and over with no change.
>> >
>> > For some reason i am unable to press F8 to bring up boot options screen
>> > during load. And this is easily the most annoying part about the whole
>> > situation. there is absolutely NO WAY to interrupt the boot options
>> > and
>> > get
>> > a "selectable" list of boot options, for some reason it ONLY goes to
>> > Startup
>> > repair.
>> >
>> > Startup Repair never lasts too long at all only about 20 seconds each
>> > time.
>> > The diagnostic code in the details is as follows: (this is the only
>> > problem
>> > it detects)
>> >
>> > Root cause found:
>> > Boot Manager failed to find OS loader.
>> > Repair action : File Repair
>> > Result : Completed Successfully. Error code 0x0
>> > Time taken = 13400 ms
>> >
>> > So it states that it has fixed it but every time i restart it i get the
>> > same
>> > issue. I cant boot from cd because of course HP in its infinite wisdom
>> > decided to make this a "diskless" restore. Using their own branded
>> > software
>> > to restore your computer - of course there are no restore points (as i
>> > couldn't make them some software issue) so now im forced to restore
>> > this
>> > back
>> > to factory settings (which i really dont want to do)
>> >
>> > If anyone has any idea or had a similar problem like this please offer
>> > any
>> > suggestions. FYI i am a seasoned MS Programmer with about 2 decades
>> > of
>> > experience and in my lifetime i have never had such a hard time trying
>> > to
>> > fix
>> > a computer. I mean comon, give me a command prompt or something. I
>> > find
>> > it
>> > ridicolous that i cannot interrupt startup at any time!
>> >
>> > tia,
>> > mcm[/color]
>>
>>[/color][/color]