I'm glad you have solved the problem.
Regarding the liveCD I have suggested, there is no need to use an external drive, you can use a CD or USB flash and the operation system loads from there, after that the desktop is very similar to windows.
My suggestion is to make a bootable cd like that when you find time because it will also be very useful if anything happens to windows and the computer isn't able to boot into the OS, in that case you can easily run the bootcd and save all your data to an external storage like CD, USB flash or external disk with the included applications, you can even communicate using the browser to ask for a solution.
Also keep an eye from time to time in the smart data of your HDD, it can usually warn you before the disk goes bad.
The best advice I can give you is to make a backup of important data from time to time, better safe than sorry.
Alex