Hi Ray,
A failing hard drive can have that effect on your Windows installation. I suggest you run an HDD diagnostic tool. If you know the brand of HDD hooked up on your laptop, you can find its diagnostic tool from the brand's website (updated ones are here) or from the HDD Diags link on my sig.
Oh shoot.. you have a toshiba laptop, I guess you have a toshiba hard drive. Hmmm if that is the case use Maxtor/Seagate diagnostic tools from here:
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/sup...oads/seatools/
I prefer the Seatools for DOS bootable CD image version.