Windows 7 fails to start in anyway

Laptop alert! I have a 2 year old ASUS laptop with a 5 month old 1 TB harddrive running on Windows 7 (64).
Everything was fine then all of sudden mouse and internet stopped working... I wanted to restart but now this is what happens:
When I restart, I automatically get the 2 options: launch startup repair or start windows normally. When I choose startup repair it acts as if it will, but 2 seconds later goes back to that exact same screen of those 2 options. when I choose start normally, it acts as if starting up, with windows logo and everything, for a good minute, then goes back to that same 2 option screen again (the b&w startup repair or normally, with the seconds counting down)...
I've tried 'repair your computer'.  Nothing. I've tried to startup in safe mode (F8) with Networking and with Command Prompt, but it loads windows files for a while, says to please wait, then goes again back to that same b&w options page (repair or normally).
I've tried 'enable boot logging', same result; 'last known good configuration', same result; 'directory services repair mode', same result; 'debugging mode', same; 'disable driver signature enforcement', whatever that means, gets me... the same; 'disable automatic restart on system failure', here I eventually get a blue screen UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME with a whole bunch of tech info digits, Os and Fs, etc.). No matter what, it always comes back to the same page: startup repair or launch normally, whichever, of course, do not work. I CAN NEVER PASS BEYOND THIS POINT, EVEN WITH BOOT INSTALLATION DISC!

Is there no way of rebooting at a previous system restore point? At this point, I have bought an enclosure for the drive, to treat it as an external drive on another pc, but when I try that, opening it on another oc, it wants to format the drive which is a big no-no, since format = erase all data.

Now I just want what is in the hard drive.  I'm going shopping for a new laptop, see what they have...  oh the sick sense of humor of laptops...

The only thing I can see is: could it be a usb issue, like the usb controllers hanging things up or something? If so, can I just manually unhook them... or what?

I am at a complete loss here...

Thx for help.