yeah, muh 'Puter decided it had enough & released it's "magic blue smoke" to the ether.

What happened is that my C: drive just stopped, locking up everything. I'm using mama Gunn's Chromebook atm (not liking the experience) well a new "budget" gaming rig is already ordered & should be here in a couple of weeks (windows 10 but likely end up back on windows 7)

One temporary suggestion: If you are able to make a Linux Live CD or USB, try booting from it. If that doesn't work, try removing the hard drive and booting from the Live CD.

If the system works without the hard drive, try getting a new hard drive. That might allow the computer to work again (though, of course, you will be missing all the data that was on the old disk).