[lakrv]

First of all, I am someone whose computer knowledge doesn't extend much beyond turning on the computer, checking E-mails and browsing the net. Configuration is out of my range of knowledge.

I have a desktop which is about 6 yrs old - Dell Dimension 8300, Windows XP. It has gotten a bit slow and I rarely use it, but my parents use it to watch some TV shows. It was fine until yesterday, but today while trying to turn it on, it kept coming up with the message 'secondary drive 0 not found'. There seemed to be two options: Option 1 to press F1 to continue; if I chose the option 'start windows normally' I was stuck with the XP screen and nothing happening beyond. If I tried to open in safe mode, some code that was gibberish to me filled the page. I tried option 2, which was F2 for setup utility, but didn't know what to do there.

I am all right if this is the end of this computer's life - I am mainly concerned with stuff on my hard drive which I have been foolish to not back up. Any chance that I may be able to retrieve them from my c drive?

thanks!!!