my computer will not boot at all -- help!

[theRealMacoy]

Help!

My computer will not boot up at all.

It shows the Dell screen initially and then a screen shows up saying that windows did not load properly and i can choose one of 4 options (start normally, safe mode, safe mode with networking, safe mode with config? screen, and finally the option saying choose the previous configuration that worked).

When i choose any of the safe modes it fills the screen with a list function lines and directories but does not get any further.

When i choose any other option (e.g., last configuration that worked or load windows normally) the windows loading screen with comes up and then it goes to black screen and nothing else happens.

I am running windows XP home edition.
I have one 30g hard drive, it had only 4-5 gigs free space the last time it worked.

I was playing poker the last time it worked and it seemed to be working normally. I had earlier downloaded and installed a program called e-mule (which may have been the problem) earlier in that computing session.

I have no idea what i should do from here?

I would love to be able to diagnose the problem myself as i am pretty strapped for cash (e.g. do i need a new hard drive? did i get a virus? do i need to reformat my hard-drive?)

Any help you folks could offer would be cool....how can i get back into my computer?

I don't have a rescue disk created that i can find at the moment.

Cheers and thanks,
Sean