SHOULD IT SWIM WITH THE FISHES

HELLO ALL, I HAVE A SONY VAIO LAPTOP PROBABLY ABOUT 4-5 YRS OLD WITH QUITE A FEW HOURS ON IT AND HAVE A PROBLEM. WHEN I TURN IT ON IT LOADS UP WITH THE INTEL LOGO THEN IT GOES TO THE WINDOWS XP LOAD SCREEN [THE BLUE BLOCKS THAT FLOAT UNDER THE XP] THEN , WHEN THE XP SCREEN GOES AWAY FOR A SPLIT SECOND A BLUE SCREEN POPS UP WITH TEXT I CANT READ BECAUSE IT GOES AWAY SO FAST. AFTER THE BLUE SCREEN I GET A FULL BLACK SCREEN WITH THE COMPUTER TELLING ME THAT THERE WAS A PROBLEM LOADING WINDOWS AND IT COULD BE FROM SOFTWARE THAT WAS ADDED OR REMOVED, THEN GIVES ME THE OPTION TO START IN SAFE MODE, OPTICAL MODE OR WHERE WINDOWS LAST STARTED UP. I HAVE TRIED ALL OF THEM AND WHEN I PICK ONE THE WHOLE PROCESS STARTS OVER..INTEL LOGO...XP SCREEN, BLUE SCREEN, THEN BLACK SCREEN WITH OPTIONS THAT DONT WORK. I DID NOT ADD OR REMOVE ANY PROGRAMS BUT I DID TURN IT OFF BY PRESSING THE POWER BUTTON [ NOT CLOSING WINDOWS DOWN THE RIGHT WAY ] AND THIS IS WHEN IT ALL STARTED..ANY IDEAS, ALSO THE HARDDRIVE DOES NOT MAKE ANY SOUND LIKE IT USED TO AT STARTUP.
THANKS