Help!  My iMac doesn't see the hard disk!

My old, reliable iMac (the old sunflower flat panel) suddenly froze up and when I did a hard break and restarted it, the dreaded folder with a question mark appeared.
I tried starting it from an installation disk--which it did with no problems except it still didn't see the hard disk. I tried inserting the Apple Hardware Test disk, which worked. I ran it and it said everything was OK, but when I hit the Restart button it still didn't see my hard drive.
I'm at my wit's end because, being a freelancer, I have a lot of important information on my iMac, which I stupidly haven't backed up for a long time. I have a little hope because the Apple Hardware Test ran and didn't find any problems (the Mass Storage test passed, which I'm assuming is the hard disk?).
PLEASE! Can anyone help me? My main objective is to get my data off of the disk and onto either my PowerBook or my external USB hard drive.
Thanks for any advice,
Karin

I tried starting it from an installation disk--which it did with no problems except it still didn't see the hard disk.
Are you saying your drive did not show up in Disk Utility? Did you Try using Disk Utility to do a Disk Repair, as shown in this link, while booted up on your install disk.
Let us know what errors Disk Utility reports and if DU was able to repair them.
I'm at my wit's end because, being a freelancer, I have a lot of important information on my iMac, which I stupidly haven't backed up for a long time.
I think we have all been there! If you need help with a better backup strategy, let us know!
PLEASE! Can anyone help me? My main objective is to get my data off of the disk and onto either my PowerBook or my external USB hard drive.
You can retrieve data using Target Disk Mode to your PowerBook. That's if the drive shows up.
Also, here is Apple doc.#58042 on the flashing ? mark!
Cheers! DALE

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