[John Rogers]

Don't panic yet....Start the computer with a power on and hit which ever key you are supposed to use to get into the BIO setup program and scroll to the screen to see what drives and cd-roms are listed. Make sure they are recognized by the BIOS and then save and exit the BIOS setup with a save. Once the computer starts up the operating system should see the drives. Since you did not give any details of the hardware and which version of Windows you have, I am going to guess that you probably do have a virus and/or the settings for the hardware have been lost. The drivers might have to be reinstalled and if you can suppply some more info eith I or someone here can tell you how to do that. If the driver reinstall fails then the operating system might have to be repaired and that is when you need to panic.... Good luck.