Laptops :: backup/restore problem

Hi!

I am kind of new to linux, I've only used red hat so far and only on a small number of times. So, for all purposes, I am a n00b.

Today, my sister's laptop, a compaq pp2130, stopped working. Immediately after the screen that says "press F10 for..." a message appeared:

1790-Disk-0 error

Invalid disk ...[or some crap like that]

So I remembered I have a disk with DSL, I had heard that it could be used to repair computers, so I booted it, opened the DSL control panel, then backup/restore, wrote 'hda' in the text box, and pressed restore...

So I don't know what the hell is the computer doing, it stopped responding about two minutes ago but it sounds like it's doing something with the hard drive. Help of any kind will be much appreciated.

-JC

Edit: maybe this should go under "other help topics" please respond to this issue here