Thank you so much.
I simply went to the 'repair start up' section and within 30 seconds I was back up and running. I had not installed anything for this to occur.
I deleted the back-up partition that came with the notebook (to save space) initially, so I do not have a back-up. I figured i'd never use it. That was the wrong choice.
What can I do now to ensure this problem will never happen again? Will this back-up image you provided suffice? or should I make an image of my pc?
Thanks alot... really.. thank you.