HP media center - windows XP freezes / windows recovery fails.

HP m7680n
HP direct info: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc [...] R1002_USEN
Windows XP Media Center (assumed patch 3, but unknown).
2x250GB SATA HDDs in an unknown RAID configuration.
The computer is 2.5-3 years old.

This computer has recently stopped working properly. Windows freezes up shortly after booting. I tried using the windows XP CD to recover the data, but it said something along the lines of HDD failure, and gave me the following error:
Stop: 0x0000007b (0xf78d2524, 0xc0000035, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

I then attempted logging into windows recovery in safe modem and attempted Windows Recovery from a previous working date from two weeks ago. It gave me the message that an attempt to write ove read-over memory failed refering to win32k.sys. I didn't take note of the following error code.

I then just attempted to start windows normally but I got the same error with code:
0x000000BE (0xBF801269, 0x13584021, 0xB9D1BA14, 0x0000000C)
Win32k.sys -address BF977557 base at BF800000

If you need any more information, I'd attempt to collect it. The computer is currently running from a Ubuntu LIVE CD. The computer also is not my own. I can assume it's some type of HDD failure, due to the age and use of no-name HDDs in RAID. I don't know what informatio is stored on the HDDs, so I don't intend to reformat unless needed. I simply want to upgrade to Vista, but I don't have a license to do this with at the moment and I'd rather stay legit on a computer I don't own. I can't get any information from the owner of the computer because she is currently hospitialized.

I have taken care of the sitation.
Working with such an issue is out of my current capabilities, and thus a professional will do the repairs.
The user is currently just using a Ubuntu live CD for basic net browsing.

Thanks anyways, I'll keep memtest in mind.

Sounds like the registry is corrupted. Easiest way to repair the registry is boot to the Windows XP CD and do a repair install. You could also reinstall the OS, obviously. A manual repair of the registry could be done, but it is a lenghty process.