Revolving Boot is Driving me Crazy

I have an IBM and have just installed XP and got the system the way I want it. Then – without warning – the system went into shut down. Upon reboot – it did a little clicking and boom – down it went again. After 3 tries – I am afraid to try anything as even my windows 98 boot disk doesn’t allow me to recognize the c: drive to perhaps retrieve some old email and personal files. Any suggestions.
Saavychick