Windows 7 recovery disk hangup

If you were a getting a disk read error then it is likely that your hard drive has failed. When you go to repair the OS the repair process encounters the failed section of the HDD and fails. You will need to test and probably replace your HDD.

Right, but I can't even get it to the repair screen. It just hangs on the blue background screen...

As soon as Win 7 detects a hardware issue it will blue screen. In this case it is likely doing it the moment the HDD fails to respond in the manner Win 7 expects. If you were getting a disk read error then the HDD is almost certain to be damaged. The quick way to find out would be to try swapping it out with another drive.

My mistake, I think you misunderstood me. I meant the blue screen right after when it does 'windows is loading files.' Blue screen with that stupid green leaf lol, not like BSOD blue screen.

I can't even get to the menu: http://www.shivaranjan.com/shivaupload/windowslivewrite...

Exact same background, but no menu is popping up. I've tried dling a copy (http://www.w7forums.com/official-windows-7-sp1-iso-imag...) of Windows (legit) and burning it, but it still won't show anything, same old blue background.

As I was typing this, I decided to clean my computer of any lingering dust for any reason. And now, my monitor is NOT shutting off.

I left the massive text above in case someone in the future as having similar problems could be helped.

In any case, the startup repair is underway! Let's see how it turns out.

Well, it said it was attempting to fix the errors, but just a second ago, my monitor shut off...

any idea why this is happening?

Ok see, now this is messed up lol.

I just did a full install on my 'failed' HD (it showed in custom install that it was fully formatted, all 147gigs free).

I just completed the w7 installation and I'm back on my desktop with my 'failed' HD having w7x64 on it.

I had a power outage about 3 days ago, could it have been a lingering effect caused by this outage that perhaps corrupted some boot files?

with the power outage you got a few days ago i will use the drive maker test program to see if nothing went wrong and be shure that the drive did not suffer for that power outage