Windows won't load, just freezes at welcome

[ZTUK]

I was switching between programmes on my laptop using the windows key when my computer froze then shut down. Since then it will not fully load, it freezes at the welcome screen just after i put in my password, no error message, no other screen just the welcome blue screen and the 'ring' spinning next to the word welcome. It will start in safe mode and the start up repair and scan show no problems. All the start up repairs says is if you have external devises plugged in unplug and try again. When I try system restore it goes through it but when it restarts to finish the restore I get the same problem again. Please help I have run out of ideas and have baby pics etc that I don't want to lose.

NB: I had an external hard drive plugged in at the time of the freeze. When it happened only the mouse stopped working, I could still navigate with the keyboard. When I tried to restarted to get the mouse working thats when it got stuck at welcome screen.
This is my spec:
Manufacturer: Hewlett-packard
Model: Compaq presario c700 notebook pc
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium
CPU/Ram: 1.828 GHz / 2037 MB