If worse comes to worse, you can have someone burn you an Ubuntu live disc which will allow you to run the OS from a CD drive.
So long as your hard drive us OK you can recover all your files.
http://www.ubuntu.com/download
That’s just what I was going to suggest :-)
There are several Linux based rescue disks out there, some a lot smaller than Ubuntu.
Just search using this string and google will turn up lots of them.
“linux emergence boot repair rescue disk”
Or perhaps this one will do the trick...the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows.
http://www.ubcd4win.com/