Boot-up fails, stuck on blue screen

My powerbook g4 won't boot. It makes the startup sound, displays the apple logo, then the blue line climbs up slowly and it then sticks on a blank blue screen with only the arrow cursor.
Have read I should try PRAM and SMC resets, but it's very important I know if these will cause loss of files saved on the hard drive. There are some very important files on my HD, so can anybody suggest what it's possible to do without deleting anything, or a way to recover these before reinstalling everything?
Many thanks,
Peggy

Resetting PRAM and SMC shouldn't cause anything to go missing, though any time your Mac won't boot there's SOME risk right there.
Can you boot the Mac OS X Install CD/DVD? Running Disk Utility and checking/fixing permissions and the HD would be a good thing to try.
You could also try a "safe boot" by holding down the Shift key right after the "chime".
Doug

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    Message was edited by: macjack

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