Well - thanks for all the great suggestions. We took it to our systems guy (remember I am totally illiterate on all of this....) but he said the hard drive won't 'spin' and that is why we need data retrieval? I feel so bad because it is my son's work .. I will print all these responses and give them to Tom (spouse who has some understanding of the mechanisms of these things - I do not) to see if any of these tips work.

Absolutely right - I was drinking white wine -- next time I'll stick to red and keep it a hell of a long way from the computer. The only good news is if my son had done it I would have wanted to murder him and now I can only blame myself......