Thank you for your reply
My pc is non-functional right now, all 3hds are out, it didn't have a working OS at all, which was the problem. I am not particularly concerned about the Quattro or Excel as much as I didn't want to lose the programs - I can redo the data and get an Excel viewer for now. Its losing the 3,000+ mp3s - some of this was very rare music and the cds have deteriorated. I will try the Recover program but I am unsure as to whether it will work on a hd that is not the OS one. However, the site does provide a link to a recovery service as well. Thanks for that :-) I will get on to this tomorrow and let you know.
As far as wiping the hds is concerned, if I can't run programs from them and can't find the lost files, then not a problem.
I'm thinking I might get an online file storage acct if they stream music and prevent this happening again. Life on the edge of a rainforest is not really technologically ideal!

Thanks again for your help.
Petra