My sister had the same BS on her computer (HP) & it turned out the hard drive was RS, bad sectors. Another thing with HP computers, they have a set up with a partition for their own system (or used to) & instead of the one windows disc, you got six of the buggers to install on the thing, the partition can be to small to install an original version of windows on.
Anyway, is it a warranty situation? seeing its so new.
I have found this disc invaluable for being able to have a look at your OS & being at the very least, save info & data like pics, music & address books.
Its called ERD commander (by Winternals) its a bootable disc, with an XP type set up that lets you troll around your system. PM me if you want a link to a site that has it.