Toshiba L300 hangs or reboots during recovery

Hello,

I have a Toshiba L300 running Windows Vista. I'm trying to restore it using the recovery discs because it reboots every hour (on average) when it was still working.

When I choose Restore to out-of-box state, it seems to run a little while (going as far as 11%) - then it hangs or reboots. I've tried this countless times using different options. No success.

When I choose System Recovery, it doesn't display the operating system anymore. So there's no way to do a System Restore, PC Repair, or the like.

I tried to install Windows XP from a cd but it gave me a Blue Screen with error 0x0000008E... setupdd.sys... usbohci.sys...

I want to know why the recovery process wont complete. Why does the laptop hang or reboot every time during the recovery process?

Can it be the hard drive? How do I check for HDD failure now with the current state of my laptop?

Pls help.