Thanks for this - sorry for the delay in responding - I was away last week.
Your posting is absolututely spot on
- PC World were indeed unable to help and the data recovery company recommended to me were v. v. expensive indeed as you said.
The most annoying thing that I have lost is photos of my children and Timber's file showing how he has changed and matured during his first 10 months. So that has taught me an important lessons - to always back up important data.
Once again many thanks for responding
Bonnie