Vista won't load ..need help

Everything was running fine on my HP pavilion, then last night one of my dogs accidently got behind the desk and pulled the speaker cable out. I plugged it back in but couldn't get any sound. I decided to re-start the computer, but got a blue screen with the HP invent logo come up and it wouldn't load any further. After searching many forums I came upon this web site with a post about it possibly being a problem with the memory card reader, it made sense because earlier in the day I had tried to load pictures from my camera but couldn't get the reader to read the memory card, after a re-start it did read it and load the pictures. Anyway after reading the post I followed instructions, disconnected the cable from the memory card reader, plugged the computer back in and everything loaded up, it was very slow but otherwise loaded normally. I let windows run for about 10-15 minutes, shut down, re-connected the cable, fired back up and got the blue screen again!, So went back in disconnected the cable again, fired back up and now it will load to the vista home premium welcome page ..but will not load the uses or go any further. Normally I wouldn't be so concerned and would just get it reformatted, but I have so much stuff on there, video's and pictures of my recently deceased mother, that I can never replace and bare to lose. If anyone can give me help or advice on this it would be very much appreciated,

Unplug anything you have in the system aside from the keyboard and mouse, try booting again. Even if the PC won't load for some reason, you can easily buy a new hard-drive to install Windows on again and keep your current one as a backup.