Strangely, her machine would do nothing. Claimed part of the System file was corrupted. Windows setup disc in the drive...no dice. Won't boot off the CD. Hmmm, odd. Finally hooked the drive up to my machine and copied my system files over hers, trying to get it working long enough to fix. That got more response, but not a good one. Still won't boot up, still won't boot off the CD, just a new error startup. We hooked it to my machine, again, backed up her stuff, wiped the drive, and went to reinstall the OS. STILL won't boot off the CD, even with the formatted drive. In the end, we killed all power, removed the motherboard battery, jumped the breaker to make the BIOS reload itself, and all went according to plan: reinstall OS, get all backed up files back in place, move on. Took all damn morning to get it all together, but things are back to normal.
Felt good to find that I can still do something right. And now, it's off the to HPLFF, Day 2. Short Films all day!