I own a Dell Dimension 4600 PC and on January 1, 2009 when one of our family members tried to use the computer, Windows(XP) was taking forever to load up. It never fully loaded up and since then, through various attempts to get it to work, I am still without a functioning PC. The computer is 5 years old and past warranty.
When I start the computer, it shows a bunch of drives and either sticks there or other times it shows the Windows logo and the little scanning green thing going back and forth very slowly. Starting in safe mode does nothing at all, and I've tried reloading windows xp from disc and choosing repair, nothing happens that way either.
My husband seems to think replacing the hard drive will solve our problem, but he's not a computer geek, and neither am I, not when it comes to this kind of thing.
Any help is appreciated.

I would try and reinstall Windows, not a Repair but a full reinstall first.

Do I have to remove windows first then reinstall? Are we sure it's windows and not my computer itself?

Then there is the question on how to uninstall and reinstall if I can't get to the "add or remove programs"... etc.. I can't get onto my desktop, start menu, nothing.

You boot to your XP CD and install from that.

Will post on what happens after I do what u advised. THanks.