odd file system?

Is it possible for XP pro use a file system besides ntfs? There is a computer (dell optiplex-year and a half or so old) whose hard drive went suddenly blank. I put in my computer as a slave (mine is xp home) and couldn't write to it. I rebooted into Fedora 3 and couldn't mount it. I looked at it from Knoppix, and saw that it was an unknown file system. The the hard drive just sh1t the bed on me, or is something funny going on?
Right now, the optiplex says something about a disk error.

Another related question... Is it possible for a Verizon tech support person to talk a somewhat computer literate person through totally erasing their hard drives contents, as well as it's filesystem formatting, without the person knowing? Just trying to cover all my bases here, becasue I think the hard drive is goign to accept a windows reinstall. I just can't for the life of me figure out what happened.

The timing is extraordinarily coincidental; this problem occurred suddenly when there was a problem connecting the network to DSL through what I guess was a faulty modem (the modem was connected to another machine). There was a Verizon tech guy on the phone (sounds like one about as helpful as some of the Dell support people I've talked to ) talking someone through things that he can't recall specifically. There weren't any power surges that I know of, or interruptions. This computer was simply turned off and on again a couple of times, then Blam; no more booting. It will boot to a knoppix cd though, if that info is helpful at all. You have to press a key to do it though; at first I thought the something fried the whole works

Anyone of the (what I consider) geniuses here have any idea as to probable cause?

Pieter?

 

but when you boot with a knoppix cd you are not useing your Hdd you are running off of the cd. your Hdd could have just died. It could be an unknown file system because it is no more.

 

Oh, balls.

 

Hey, have you tried accessing it using a NTFSBoot disk or Win98 boot disk to see if the files are still intact?

http://www.ntfs.com/boot-disk.htm


Maybe, just maybe you could use some command line to save some of your files.
Worth a shot I guess