You are turning your computer back on and are a little nervous. Your hard drive has crashed, forcing you to endure a reboot cold. This happens sometimes as the result of a power outage. If your computer does not recognize your hard drive, then you have to figure out a way to get your data off the hard disk before repartitioning and reinstalling Windows.
There are many ways of rectifying the situation. The most simple is to insert your Emergency Boot Disk in to your computer; you should have gotten this disk with your copy of Windows. Simply insert it in to the drive and reboot. If your main drive’s Master Boot Record was damaged, type in fdisk/mbr. This should take care of the situation. But once you are able to reload Windows, back up your data once again, just to be on the safe side.
There are many reasons why a loss of MBR might have occurred. If it did not come about as the result of a crash, then perhaps your operating system is infected with a virus. If you have a virus infection program installed – and you should – then you should have also received a special boot disk with that program. Now is the time to use that disk.
In the unfortunate event that you do have a virus, you should keep in mind the fact that all removable media that has touched your operating system might be infected – including any back ups you might have performed previously. Thus, it is a good idea to scan your system several times to make sure you do not re-infect yourself.
In the event that your data file have been saved on a separate partition, then you can access your data even if you are not able to see your main drive. Make sure your data partition is visible when you are booting from the Startup disk. You will not have to reboot from your main hard disk unless you are using some kind of compression system or a proprietary format on the drive. While you investigate the partition failure, make a back up copy of all your data – even if you have to use floppy disks to do it. The problem can also spread very easily, so be careful when you are doing this.