Teaching Information Technology

Style Sheets CSS

2009-10-21T01:29:00.000-07:00

There is a great deal of information on CSS all over the web. Since it’s a reasonably open web development methodology with lots of options this can quickly lead to confusion and frustration.

What is CSS? CSS is short for Cascading Style Sheets. It is a new web page layout method that has been added to HTML to give web developers more control over their design and content layout. Using CSS allows a designer to create a standard set of commands (either embedded inside the web page or from an external page) that controls the style of all subsequent pages. With CSS you can add style (fonts, colors, spacing, size. links) to web documents. More advanced techniques control the layout of the page without the use of tables or other cumbersome HTML. The most important thing for web designers to understand about CSS is that CSS separates the layout and the styles of a web page. This is often difficult for comprehend for web designers that are used to compiling their creative and HTML coding in a single web page document. Styles such as fonts, font sizes, margins, can be specified in one place, then the Web pages feed off this one master list, with the styles cascading throughout the page or an entire site.

What are the benefits of using CSS? Until recently web page layout was not an exact science. It has been managed by inventive designers who mastered table-based HTML layouts enough to create compelling sites. With CSS all of that has changed as standards are finally being set for the present and future of web design. CSS is beneficial to the designer because of the a fore mentioned control they have over their web site design and how it will be appear across platforms and browsers. Web sites designed in CSS are faster to change and update. Because the coding is reduced the pages are more efficient and require less bandwidth. Cost saving functions like these is causing businesses to demand CSS from their designers which are forcing less hold-out designers to convert because their clients demand it. The main benefit to designers and to companies is that CSS speeds the time it takes to develop and update site layouts. Communication is easier among multiple developers because the workflow is standardized. All in all, CSS is a development method that every designer will be using in the near future, and one that is very beneficial to everyone involved, from the designer through to the end user.

CSS RULES Cascading Style Sheets are a set of rules that govern the display of the document through a web browser. The rules simply are lines of command codes that tell the browser how to display the information. It is crucial with CSS to get the syntax of the command lines correct to keep any frustrating errors from popping up.

What does a rule look like?

The SELECTOR selects (determines) which HTML element you’re working with. HTML elements are common tags like <body>, <H1>,<p>. Often the selector is referred to as an element selector or a type selector. The DECLARATION tells the browser what to do with the Selected element. It consists of two parts: The PROPERTY, which identifies which attribute like font type, size and color, for example, is called into play. The VALUE, determines how the attribute works, in other words it causes the action that changes the font type, size and color to what the property asks for. A declaration is always signaled by a { bracket and is ended with a closing }. A property is separated by a : and a ; ends each declaration. An example of a Declaration:

Why does the code look like this? Browser can read the code in single lines or in staggered lines like the example above. The reason for the staggered line is so our eyes can more easily catch silly errors that can end up costing valuable programming time. Ok, so you're thinking that you could get the same result by just tagging <H1> each with <font color="blue" face="arial">. You could, but what if you have a 20 page site and you want to change the from blue to orange. With one simple change you can change the entire site, and quickly change it back if you hate the new look. That's the beauty of CSS.

Example Tags

2009-04-09T02:13:00.001-07:00

Example <html> tag
A simple HTML document, with the minimum of required tags:

<html>
<head>
<title> Title of the document </title>
</head>
<body>
The content of the document ......
</body>
</html>

Example <h1> to <h6> tag
The six different HTML headings:

<h1> This is heading 1 </h1>
<h2> This is heading 2 </h2>
<h3> This is heading 3 </h3>
<h4> This is heading 4 </h4>
<h5> This is heading 5 </h5>
<h6> This is heading 6 </h6>

Example <p> tag
A paragraph is marked up as follows:

<p> This is some text in a paragraph. </p>
<p align="left"> Paragraph text align to the left side. </p>
<p align="center"> Paragraph text align to center. </p>
<p align="justify"> Paragraph text align to justify. </p>

Example <br> tag
A line break is marked up as follows:

This text contains <br/> a line break.

Example <hr> tag
A horizental line is marked up as follows:

Some text here <hr/> and some text here. it make horizontal line between the text
Attribute are align (center, left, right)
noshade
size (specifies the thickness of the horizontal rule. value is in pixels)
width(specifies the width of the horizontal rule. value is in %)

<hr align="center" size =10 width=50% >

Lesson Three

2009-04-07T05:59:00.000-07:00

TEXT LINKS

The tags used to produce links are the <a> and </a>.
The <a> tells where the link should start and the </a> indicates where the link ends.
Everything between these two will work as a link.
The target of the link is added to the <a> tag using
the href="http://www.whateverpage.com" setting.
The example below shows how to make the word here work as a link to yahoo

click <a hrep-"http://www.yahoo.com"> here </a> to go to yahool.

Click here to go to yahoo.
You simply:
• Specify the target in the <a href=" ">.
• Then add the text that should work as a link.
• Finally add an </a> tag to indicate where the link ends.

TEXT FORMAT

These are the tags for text formats:

<b>text</b>	write text as bold
<i>text</i>	write text in italics
<u>text</u>	write underlined text
<sub>_text</sub>	lower text and makes it smaller
<sup>^text</sup>	lifts text and makes it smaller
<blink>text</blink>	guess yourself! (Note: Netscape only.)
<strikek>~~text~~</strike>	strikes a line through the text
<tt>`text`</tt>	writes text as on a classic typewriter
<pre> text </pre>	writes text exactly as it is, including spaces.
<em>text</em>	usually makes text italic.
<strong>text</strong>	usually makes text bold.

<big>text</big>	increase the size by one
<small>text</small>	decrease the size by one
<h1> text </h1>	writes text in biggest heading
<h6> text </h6>	writes text in smallest heading
<font size="1">text</font>	writes text in smallest fontsize. (8 pt)
<font size="7">text</font>	writes text in biggest fontsize (36 pt).

Lesson Two

2009-04-04T06:44:00.000-07:00

Font
The <font> tag will change the font.
Example: How the output looks in the browser.

Hello! This is my First page.
This local text looks different.
This text looks like the first line.

HTML: The code to produce the above example.

<html>
<head>
<title>My Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<basefont color="green" face="arial" size="4">
Hello! This is my page.<br><br>
<font color="red" face="arial" size="2">
This local text looks different.
</font>
<br><br>
This text looks like the first line.
</body>
</html>

Lessson One

2009-04-04T05:40:00.000-07:00

It is possible to create webpages without knowing anything about the HTML source behind the page.
There are excellent editors on the market that will take care of the HTML parts. All you need to do is layout the page.
However, if you want to make it above average in webdesign, it is strongly recommended that you understand these tags.
The most important benefits are:
• You can use tags the editor does not support.
• You can read the code of other people's pages, and "borrow" the cool effects.
• You can do the work yourself, when the editor simply refuses to create the effects you want.

All you need to do is type in the code, then save the document, making sure to put an .html extension or an .htm extension to the file (for instance "mypage.html").

Basically, a computer sees an "A" as simply an "A" - whether it is (bold, italic, big or small).
To tell the browser that an "A" should be bold we need to put a markup in front of the A.
Such a markup is called a Tag.
All HTML tags are enclosed in < and >.
Example: a piece of text as it appears on the screen.
This is an example of bold text.
HTML: the HTML for the above example:

This is an example of <b>bold</b> text.

As you can see, the start tag indicates that whatever follows should be written in bold. The corresponding end tag indicates that the browser should stop writing text in bold.

Page Structure

All normal webpages consist of a head and a body.
• The head is used for text and tags that do not show directly on the page.
• The body is used for text and tags that are shown directly on the page.
Finally, all webpages have an <html> tag at the beginning and the end, telling the browser where the document starts and where it stops.
The most basic code - the code you will use for any page you make, is shown below:

<html>
<head>
This section is for the title and technical information of the page
</head>
<body>
This section is for all that you want to show on the page.
</body>
</html>

The body of the document contains all that can be seen when the user loads the page.
In the rest of this tutorial you can learn in detail about all the different aspects of HTML, including:

 • Text
    Formatting
    Resizing
    Layout
    Listing

 • Links
    To local pages
    To pages at other sites
    To bookmarks
 
 • Images
    Inserting images (GIF and jpg)
    Adding a link to an image
 
 • Backgrounds
    Colors
    Images
    Fixed Image

 • Tables
 • Frames
 • Forms
 • Metatags
 • Hexadecimal Colors

Structure Tags

2009-03-25T04:35:00.000-07:00

To use any of the following HTML tags, simply select the HTML code you'd like and copy and paste it into your web page.

Structure Tags
Function	Start Tag	Attribute	Ending Tag
HTML File	<html>	none	</html>
File header	<head>	none	</head>
File title	<title>	none	</title>
Comments	<!-->	Your comments go between the start and end tags. Put a space between the -- and your comments.	<!-->
Body	<body>	background="filename" bgcolor="color value" text="color value" link="color value" vlink="color value	</body>
Division	<div>	align="right/left/center" style="property:value;" class="classname"	</div>
Span (inline)	<span>	style="property:value;" class="classname"	</span>

Basic Text Tags

2009-03-25T04:33:00.001-07:00

Basic Text Tags
Function	Start Tag	Attributes	End Tag
Line Break	<br>	Clear="left/right/all"	</br> or <br/>
Paragraph	<p>	align="center/right"	</p>
Bold	<b>	none	</b>
Italic	<i>	none	</i>
Typewriter Text	<tt>	none	</tt>
Headline	<h1>to<h6>	align="center/right"	</h1> ---</h6>
Font	<font>	face="name, name" size="+/-value/fixed size" color="color value" Note: the font tag is being phased out in favor of CSS styles.	</font>
Horizontal Rule	<hr>	size="XX" width ="XX/XX%" noshade	</hr> --- <hr/>
Block Quote	<blockquote>	none	</blockquote>
Division	<div>	align="left/center/right"	</div>

List Tags

2009-03-25T04:30:00.001-07:00

List Tags
Function	Start Tag	Attributes	End Tag
Unordered List	<ul>	type="disc/circle/squre"	</ul>
Ordered List	<ol>	type="I/A/1/a/i" start="value to start counting at"	</ol>
List Item	<li>	type=all ul and ol options	</li>
Definition List	<dl>	none	</dl>
Definition List Item	<dt>	none	</dt>
Definition List definition	<dd>	none	</dd >

Image Tags

2009-03-25T04:28:00.000-07:00

Image Tags
Function	Start Tag	Attributes	End Tag
Anchor Link	< a >	href="filename" target="windowname"	</a>
Anchor Mark	< a >	name="markname"	</a >

Image Tags
Function	Start Tag	Attributes	End Tag
Insert Image	<img>	src="filename" align="left/right" width="XXX" height="XXX" alt="text that desribes image" ISMAP USEMAP="#mapname"	</img>

Client-side Imagemap Tags

2009-03-25T04:27:00.001-07:00

Client-side Imagemap Tags
Function	Start Tag	Attributes	End Tag
Defiine	<map>	name="mapname"	</map>
Area Defiine	<area>	shape="rect/circle/poly/point" coords="X,Y,X,Y" href="imagename"	</area>

Table Tags

2009-03-25T04:26:00.001-07:00

Table Tags
Function	Start Tag	Attributes	End Tag
Table	<table>	border="X" width="XX/X%" cellspacing="XX" cellpadding="XX" bgcolor="color value" background="filename"	</table>
Table Row	<tr>	align="left/center/right" valign="top/middle/bottom" bgcolor="color value"	</tr>
Table Data	< td >	align="left/center/right" valign="top/middle/bottom" width=X nowrap colspan="X" rowspan="X" bgcolor="color value"	</td>
Table Header	<th>	align="left/center/right" valign="top/middle/bottom" width=X nowrap colspan="X" rowspan="X" bgcolor="color value"	</th>
Caption	<caption>	align="left/center/right" valign="top/middle/bottom"	</caption>

Frame Tags

2009-03-25T03:59:00.001-07:00

Frame Tags
Function	Start Tag	Attributes	End Tag
Set Frames	<frame set>	cols="XX/XX%/" rows="XX/XX%/"	</frame set>
Frame Definition	<frame>	src="filename"> name="framename" noresize scroll=auto/yes/no marginwidth="XX" marginheight="XX"	</frame>
Base	<base>	target="framename"/ "_self"/ "_top"/ "_parent" (Note the underscores)	</base>
No Frames	<no frames>	Between start and end tags, place the content that appears when a non-frames browser loads this page.	</no frames>

Form Tags

2009-03-25T03:52:00.000-07:00

Form Tags
Function	Start Tag	Attributes	End Tag
Fome	<fome>	method=get/put action="programname"	</fome>
Input Field	<input>	name="variablename" type=text/password/ checkbox/radio/submit/ reset/image	</input>
Selection List	<select>	name="variablename" size=XX multiple	</select>
Selection Option	<option>	none	</option>
Scorlling Text Field	<textsrea>	name="variablename" rows=XX cols=XX	</textarea>

Meta Tags

2009-03-25T03:51:00.000-07:00

Meta Tags
Function	Start Tag	Attri butes	End Tag
<meta> (Server metatags)	http-equiv="refresh" content="seconds, filename"	none	</meta>
<meta> (Content metatags)	name="keywords/description/author/ generator/abstract/expiration" content="your information"	none	</meta>

Style Sheet Tags

2009-03-25T03:50:00.000-07:00

Style Sheet Tags
Function	Start Tag	Attributes	End Tag
Style Definition Area	<style>	type="text/css"> Style declarations go between begin and end style tags	</style>
Link to external CSS File	<link>	rel=stylesheet type="text/css" href="URL"	none

Commonly Used Special Characters

2009-03-19T05:09:00.000-07:00

Commonly-Used Special Characters
Name	Symbol	HTML Equivalent
ampersand	&	&
cent sign	¢	¢
copyright symbol	©	© or ©
degree sign	°	°
greater than	>	>
less than	<	<
non-breaking space
registered trade mark	®	®
trade mark	TM

Easy Steps to Speed Up Your Compute

2009-02-13T10:46:00.000-08:00

1. Empty the Temp directory regularly. After a short while, the temp directory fills up with hundreds of temp files that always get scanned over when Windows starts up and when programs launch. This slows everything down immensely.Rule of thumb for Temp Files: If you don’t have any programs open (and nothing minimized in the bar below), then you shouldn’t have ANY temp files in your temp directory. If you do, delete them.To delete Temp files, make sure NO programs are open, and…

a. In Windows 95, 98 or Me, go to C:WindowsTemp and delete everything inside the Temp folder.

b. In Windows 2000 or XP, it is a little trickier. First, make sure that you can see hidden folders. Double-click My Computer. Click on the Tools pull-down menu, and then on Folder Options. Click on the View tab. Scroll down and click on Show Hidden Files and Folders. Click Ok. Now you can go to the C:Documents and SettingsAdministratorLocal SettingsTemp folder. Delete everything here.

2. Empty the Temporary Internet Files regularly. To empty Temporary Internet Files, go to your Control Panel and double-click the Internet Options icon. Choose to Delete Cookies, and to Delete Files. This will clear all of your Temporary Internet Files.

3. Check your hard disks for problems.

a. For Windows 95, 98, or Me, double-click My Computer. Right-click the C-drive and click on Properties. Click on the Tools tab and choose to check the computer for problems. If you choose to do a Thorough Scan, this will do the hardware check for physical disk damage or sector damage. Choose to fix any errors it finds.

b. For Windows 2000 and XP, double-click My Computer. Right-click the C-drive and click Properties. Click on the Tools tab and choose to check the computer for problems. Click on Check Now. You will then have two check boxes. The top option is for the file check, and the second option is for the hardware (physical disk) check. Check either one, or both. At least check the top one. Hit ok, and reboot. This may take some time, but let it run.

4. Turn off Active Desktop. Active Desktop turns your desktop into a web page, and allows you to have things like a real-time calendar, and up-to-the-minute weather or stocks. These are nice, but really slow down your computer. And even if you don’t use Active Desktop for anything, just having it active can cause a performance decrease. Turn it off.

5. Install and run a good AntiVirus program to keep out viruses that can take over your system. One of my favorites is AVG.

6. Get rid of Spyware. A lot of computer users have Spyware and don’t even know they have it, much less how to get rid of it. If your computer has been taking you to websites that you don’t want to go to, or if you get pop-ups when you aren’t even on the Internet, or if your computer has been running extremely slowly lately, for no reason, you probably have Spyware.

7. Streamline MSCONFIG. One thing that really causes a HUGE performance decrease is to have unnecessary programs running in the background. Some of these programs can be seen in your System Tray (located next to the clock). These are tiny programs that are robbing you of memory and processing power. Some of them you need, while most you don’t. Some of the programs you DON’T need are printer icons, CD burning icons, shortcuts to programs (such as video settings), AOL, any Instant Messaging Programs, etc. Just because these programs aren’t always running, doesn’t mean that you still can’t print, burn CDs or Instant Message. They can all be run from a shortcut.You can use a utility, called MSCONFIG, to turn OFF unnecessary Start Up items.

a. In Windows 98, Me, and XP, click on StartRun and type msconfig. Click on the Startup tab. This is a list of everything that is running in the background, some of which show up in the System Tray. Now, be careful, some of these you do need. Some items to keep are Ctfmon.exe (XP), Scan Registry (Win98, Me), Task Monitor (Win98, Me), System Tray (Win98, Me), LoadPowerProfile (Win98, Me), Rundll.32, any AntiVirus programs (such as McAfee, Norton, or AVG). Others, you can uncheck, such as NeroCheck, ypager, qttask, AOL, and any other Instant Messaging programs, or printing programs. Remember, if something doesn’t work, because you turned it off, it can always be turned back on. You just have to reboot every time you make a change here. But, as you uncheck the unnecessary programs that run in the background, you will see that Windows loads much faster, that there are less icons in the System Tray, and that your system is much more “snappy” and quick to respond.

b. In Windows 2000, MSCONFIG wasn’t supplied. You actually have to download and run an MSCONFIG utility.

8. Defragment your hard drives. NOTE: to efficiently defragment a hard drive, it likes to have 25% free space. It can still do the defragmentation with only 15% free space, but it takes quite a bit longer. If you can, delete any unnecessary files before deframenting your drives

How to partition and format the hard disk

2009-01-11T00:36:00.000-08:00

<How to partition and format the hard disk using the Windows XP Setup program> You can use the Windows XP Setup program to partition and format the hard disk. To do this, use the following steps: Step 1: Partition the hard disk a. Insert the Windows XP CD into your CD or DVD drive, or insert the first Windows XP Setup disk into the floppy disk drive, and then restart the computer to start the Windows XP Setup program.Note If you are using the Windows XP Setup disks, insert each additional disk when you are prompted, and then press ENTER to continue after you insert each disk. b. If you are prompted, select any options that are required to start the computer from the CD or DVD drive. c. If your hard disk controller requires a third-party original equipment manufacturer (OEM) driver, press F6 to specify the driver. For more information about how to use F6 to supply a third-party OEM device driver while the Windows Setup program is running, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 314859 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314859/ ) Limited OEM driver support is available with F6 during Windows XP Setup d. At the Welcome to Setup page, press ENTER. Note If you are using the Setup disks (six bootable disks), the setup prompts you to insert the Windows XP CD. e. Press F8 to accept the Windows XP Licensing Agreement. f. If an existing Windows XP installation is detected, you are prompted to repair it. To bypass the repair, press ESC. g. All existing partitions and non-partitioned spaces are listed for each physical hard disk. Use the ARROW keys to select an existing partition, or create a new partition by selecting the non-partitioned space where you want to create a new partition. You can also press C to create a new partition using non-partitioned space. Note If you want to create a partition where one or more partitions already exist, you must first delete the existing partition or partitions, and then create the new partition. You can press D to delete an existing partition, and then press L (or press ENTER, and then press L if it is the System partition) to confirm that you want to delete the partition. Repeat this step for each existing partition that you want to include in the new partition. When all the partitions are deleted, select the remaining non-partitioned space, and then press C to create the new partition. h. To create the partition with the maximum size, press ENTER. To specify the partition size, type the size in megabytes (MB) for the new partition, and then press ENTER. i. If you want to create additional partitions, repeat steps g. and h. j. To format the partition and install Windows XP, go to step 2. If you do not want to install Windows XP, press F3 two times to exit the Windows Setup program, and then do not follow the remaining steps in this article. To format the partition without installing Windows XP, use a different utility. Step 2: Format the hard disk and install Windows XP a. Use the ARROW keys to select the partition where you want to install Windows XP, and then press ENTER. b. Select the format option that you want to use to format the partition. You can select from the following options: o Format the partition by using the NTFS file system (Quick) o Format the partition by using the FAT file system (Quick) o Format the partition by using the NTFS file system o Format the partition by using the FAT file system o Leave the current file system intact (no changes) Notes o If the selected partition is a new partition, the option to leave the current file system intact is not available. o If the selected partition is larger than 32 gigabytes (GB), the FAT file system option is not available. o If the selected partition is larger than 2 GB, the Windows Setup program uses the FAT32 file system (you must press ENTER to confirm). o If the partition is smaller than 2 GB, the Windows Setup program uses the FAT16 file system. o If you deleted and created a new System partition, but you are installing Windows XP on a different partition, you are prompted to select a file system for both the System and Startup partitions. c. Press ENTER. d. After the Windows Setup program formats the partition, follow the instructions that appear on the screen to install Windows XP. After the Windows Setup program is finished and you have restarted the computer, you can use the Disk Management tools in Windows XP to create or format more partitions. For additional information about how to use the Windows XP Disk Management tools to partition and format your hard disk.

Computer Data Recovery Options

2008-12-25T00:53:00.000-08:00

Losing files on your computer can be a frightening experience if the files are of importance to you personally or professionally. Computer data recovery techniques include the most simple of operations, like simply retrieving an accidentally deleted file, to very complex file retrieval procedures that only professionals should attempt to do.If you are trying to proceed with your hard disk recovery solution on your own, first start with the most obvious answer. Look in your recycle bin to see if the file has been placed there. If it is, you can choose the "restore" option, and your system will automatically put the file back on your computer where it was stored originally. Of course, if every retrieval was this simple, there would be no need for computer professionals who specialize in data recovery, so chances are you'll need to try a different technique to find your lost data.If you've deleted a file on your computer, and you've emptied your recycle bin, don't despair. When a file is deleted on a computer, it's not erased immediately from the system. What actually happens is the computer marks the deleted file as "deleted", and it is no longer in view to users within your computer's files. The file remains on the hard drive until new data is saved over it, similar to recording songs on cassette tapes. So, in order for computer data recovery to happen on files that have been deleted, you'll need to attempt to recover them before new data has been written over the file.

Method 2 for hard disk data recovery

2008-11-01T04:32:00.000-07:00

Here are some drive recovery tricks that have worked for me, in the order that I do them. Try booting the drive and copying the data off after every step. Hold the drive upside down, making gravity change the head geometry ever so slightly. Vertical is also another option. Slightly rap the drive with your knuckle, (but nowhere near hard enough to damage the drive). Try the drive in another machine, (slight drive voltage change assumed to be the miracle worker here). Rap the drive just SLIGHTLY harder than you did above in 2. Freeze the hard drive in the freezer for two hours, and place in a plastic zip lock bag to prevent condensation from forming on the drive when you plug it back into the system, After the drive warms up to room temperature or better, rap it even harder with your knuckle this time. Repeat all of above steps on next day, as sometimes I've gotten data off drive simply by trying again.

If Drive is not Spinning.

2008-11-01T04:24:00.000-07:00

If the drive is spinning and you are experiencing these kinds of errors, my experience has been that you are out of luck. If the drive is not spinning, I have been able to remove it from the computer and 'spin' the drive on a flat smooth surface (much like spin the bottle). This will usually free the drive and when placed back in the machine, it will boot. You should immediately back up you data after a successful boot, because the problem will return. The next 'fix' was actually given to me by a Compaq technician several years ago. I had a drive that would not spin and he told me to put the drive in a plastic bag in the freezer overnight and then install back in the computer. Believe it or not, the drive booted. I have only tried this the one time.

ways to revive a hard drive

2008-10-29T12:17:00.000-07:00

If your hard drive does work and you are attempting to recover a FAT or NTFS file system, then this FREE step by step guide could help you get back your lost files. Freeze it One trick I have learned as a technician, when the problem is data-read errors off the platters themselves, is to freeze the hard drive overnight. It makes the data more 'readable,' but for a one-shot deal. If this data is critical, and you have a replacement hard drive (which, if it's a drive failure, you probably do), then you can hook up your frozen hard drive and immediately fetch the data off before it warms up. If this drive isn't spinning up, putting it in the freezer for about an hour will usually get the drive spinning again so you can copy needed files before the drive warms up again. The first thing you want to do is run a disk utility like Norton disk doctor or wddiag (if it's a western digital drive) to verify whether the drive is working mechanically or not. If it is a master boot record problem, sometimes running Fdisk/mbr will correct the problem. It could also be a virus, and a program like F-prot will look at the drive as a physical unit. As an A+ PC technician I have seen this problem many times. Usually if the drive is not making a clicking sound I am successful in recovering the data.