When I attempted to start up my workstation today, I was faced with a problem: my operating system simply wouldn't boot. I turned on the system, the BIOS screen showed as it usually does, and booted into the operating system (Windows 7 Professional x64 bit). Here's where things got weird; The system hung on the "Loading Windows" screen, and then I ended up having to force-shutdown my computer because it hung for so long. I tried booting it on again to the same result, and on my third attempt instead of hanging at the "Loading Windows" screen it hung at the black screen before one would hopefully have a log-in screen.
It was only after I force-shutdown my system the 4th time that it offered me the option to boot into recovery, and so I did, hoping it would help. It prompted me to do a system restore, and then upon choosing to do so, the system hung, prompting me to do a force-shutdown.
I have no idea why my system is suddenly acting up as it is. Last I used it was last Thursday (May 15), and when I shut it down it shut down successfully with no problems. I have the same set of devices connected now that I did when I last shut the system down, and no changes in environment or to the system have occurred since I last used it. I did unplug my Webcam while the system was still on, but that caused no conflicts, so I can't see why it would affect my system now.
Any and all ideas on how to fix this and how to get into my system would be appreciated, as I need to access my computer for work As Soon As Possible. There's still some testing I plan on doing later with the system in its current state but If i cannot find a solution by tomorrow I may be forced to purchase a new HDD and reinstall windows on that, just to get to work again.
UPDATE: I ended up purchasing a new SSD for my OS and a HDD for my data, as well as a chassis for my old drive so I could copy files from it to my new HDD. Gotta go fast!