windows not responding HELP

Help needed my pc crashed yesterday, now when i try to start it up it wont let me open any programs ,i have done a partial recovery but that has not worked ,all i want is to get my photos and music then i can do a complete recovery,any advice tips greatly recieved.
                                                                 

Did you try restarting again?

Happened to me before but mine was that Windows doesn't start up. It happened like twice and I've had to send it to the shop both times. If you're lucky, they might be able to recover your other drives. I managed to keep my files the first time but couldn't get them back the second time.

Probably might want to back up your stuffs in future?

Yes tried restarting a few times get as far as all the icons on the screen then nothing will respond it wont let me open anything .

Did you try starting up in safe mode? That way you should be able to get all your photo's etc...

Thats what i am trying to do any ideas how to get it into safe mode all mine have failed.

To be honest mate the only way I know is to press F8 repeatedly when you first turn on your computer, just after the "windows starting up" part.

Edit: Just keep pressing F8 when computer starts up. I tried it just there and i was able to view my photo's etc.

Well f8 didn,t work it was f5 ,ive got it going but dont know how as ive hit so many buttons going to copy all my stuff then put the master cd back through it.

andy, it sounds like your windows has gone corrupt and needs re-installing, to do this you will need an xp or vista disk,    put the disk in and restart hopefully it will give the option to re-install windows, and then the option to recover this way always works....do back your work up first though.