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illdeviant, how's the computer going?
Your girlfriend's data is almost certainly okay. Until you talk to a format-happy support agent.
Dell should be able to help you re-write the MBR, or tell you more about the problem. It could be a problem somewhere else in their boot loader software and exist beyond the MBR. Since I haven't seen this in a very long time and don't have anything to test I'm suggesting you use their online chat to learn more. They should be able to nail down the exact issue and a quick fix.
If you have any reservations about the support agent's concern for your data, call again. Be persistent with your concerns about losing files.
In the worst case, before zapping the drive you can slave it drive to another functioning system long enough to copy files. It's unlikely there's any problem with the filesystems or their contents.
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There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195
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