Thanks guys but I have done a major overhaul. I had already got a new mobo and CPU. A 'new' HDD (5 months old) somehow went belly up and I temporarily lost my stuff. I have all that back now after investing in a data recovery programme and I also bought a 250gb new SATA HDD.
All now working well but I intend to do backups, drive images with Acronis and anything else to avoid this ever happening again.
With the way that machines can be compromised these days I expect to do my best to avoid whatever it was that caused the horrendous shutdowns (Faulty power) I had.
So, thanks again. Onwards and upwards - I hope.
PPP