G4 MDD HD Death?

I think my hd went out, but to make sure I am here asking...

I have a G4 dual 1ghz (pretty sure, can't see it right now) mdd, os 10.411, and it froze up so i did a hard restart: hold the power button for 10 seconds til it shuts off. When I turned it on the next time it would not boot up. Gray screen withe the spinning wheel of bars like it is thinking, searching, and longing to start up.

Booted from the install cd to access the hd, but it acts like it wants to install the os fresh.

Please tell me I can access my info...

Thanks,
Jordan

PS: I have tried searching with no avail for similar problems, but nothing.

G'day and welcome to the forums.

First up zap the PRAM, then if no joy reset the PMU or CUDA button. Also try replacing the PRAM battery as MDD often will not boot with a flat battery and one woul,d guess you are still using the original PRAM battery?