Hard Drive dead?

Hello Gang,
A few weeks ago my system (PII350 384mb RAM, XP) started acting strange. Strange in it was rebooting for no reason or it was totally freezing. A quick reboot usually solved the problem. Also i started to hear a strange 'knocking' sound. The knocking was a prelude to the system either rebooting or freezing.
Today i tried to access my 'F' 60G drive (I have a 8GB for my opertating system/programs and a 60 G for storage) it tells me that 'the disk in drive F is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?'

I can't access my 60G at all. I've tried through DOS and it says that 'the volume doesn't contain a recognizable file system'.

Can someone please help? I have pics/vids of my son's birth and first steps saved on that drive. If i lose it i'll never forgive myself for not backing it up.

Thanks

Grimms

 

Have you tryed taking the F out and putting it in another computer?

- Gary

 

I was going to do it at work on Tuesday.
I will post back if i found anything

thanks

Grimms