It sounds like I haven't given enough detail to properly diagnose the problem. First of all, I should have said system crash rather than hard drive crash. Nothing I've seen indicates a hardware problem. What I did to make things worse: The original problem was that it was failing when it tried to load kde so lacking a 9.3 disk (which was at my parents in Ohio) I tried to fix it using a 9.0 disk and the automatic repair via installation. This is what caused the current problems. I should have waited for my dad to send me the correct disk. I've done some experimenting (making notes this time) and these are the results: Using the automatic repair under the SuSE 9.3 installation - it recognizes and mounts the /dev/hda1 swap drive then tries to repair the filesystem on /dev/hda2. It tries twice, claiming it's repaired both times but then cannot mount the filesystem to continue the checking. I then moved on to the manual tools. Using the install new bootloader comes up with a "can't read /etc/fstab" message and fails. Trying the option to find lost partitions comes up with no valid partition table. Using edit partitions comes up with a partition table and a message that the partition table cannot be edited. Attempting to mount via the rescue system comes up with a can't read superblock message. I've got an old drive running in the same computer at the moment for internet access, but I haven't been able to get the printer working - the cups driver keeps dying when I try to set it up and I don't want to spend too much time on fixing this. So I have to keep shutting down and switching the cable when I need to look something up. dd_rescue is not an option at the moment - I don't have another drive that's large enough. I am currently feeling like an idiot because if I had stuck home in a separate partition, I could have installed a new system with no problem. Off to try a few more tests and make more notes Hilary -- Hilary L. Hertzoff Young Adult Librarian Mamaroneck Public Library hhertzof@gmail.com