the other day i was checking my email and running a musicjukebox when all of a sudden my computer froze. i thought this was normal so i just ctrl alt del but the computer wouldn't restart. so i powered down my computer. when i tried to boot it up again, i received a message "primary drive 0 not found"
i was prompted to either F1 or F12 i believe (maybe it was F2). i hit F1 and when i viewed the drive description it said it was "unknown"

i opened up my tower and tried to reseat the harrddrive...disconnected and reconnected the cables. nothing worked...

any suggestions?

oh i also noticed that when i try to boot it up, i hear a clicking noise coming from the harddrive "cl-click...cl-click..cl-click"

i have a Dell Dimension 8300 i think...only about 1.5 years old

are my files somewhat recoverable?

It sounds to me like your drive is dying. You could try to put it in a system as a slave drive and see if you have access to your data. If that doesn't work, you could try this utility:
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.html

but if my computer won't even boot up, how can i DL this utility?

thanks

Buy a new hard drive. It sounds like the one you have is DEAD, not simply dying!

is there any possible way to recover SOME of the files at least?

After you get another hard drive, install this old one as a slave and see if you can access the files. If not, try the restoration utility suggested earlier. But if the drive stops running entirely, it won't work. If the drive does stop working completely, do a search here for 'freezer' for a possible solution.

ok, i'll see what i can do. the freezer trick sounds sketchy but if it has been successful i guess it's worth a shot, right?!
thanks!

If you use that 'freezer trick' ensure you seal the drive in a plastic bag to protect it from moisture, and connect the thing and fire it up as quickly as possible after removing it from the freezer.

If the trick works, you want to maximise your 'window of opportunity' to lift those files off of it

has this freezer trick worked even with HDs that had the clicking noise?

Dunno, but it definitely HAS worked with drives which BIOS could no longer identify.