I see what you mean by mounting/recovering using a utility.  I understand.  I just read the Bitcoin Wiki and saw some good information on what to do and how to protect/backup the wallet.

I didn't have many coins - I bought some just to see how the thing worked.  I bought ~100 coins.  I will search that HDD for the wallet.dat file and see if I can recover the file and then use the wiki instructions to import into a new wallet.

I think I already know the sad answer...but...I had a bitcoin wallet on a PC and the HDD crashed.  If I cannot locate a backup file, are the bitcoins "lost" or is there some way to recover the coins?