all USB ports and SD slots have died on standard ZG5.

Hi All!
My ZG5 recently pulled a strange one on me. i needed to clear up some space on my flash disc so i moved some important docs onto my ZG5. then today i wanted to move those docs back to my flash disc and when i insert the flash disc it gives me the error: Failed to mount 'flash' could not read from /media/.hal-mtab. i then tried to use the SD slots and it gives me the same error message. I have tried numerous restarts to absolutely no avail. I currently have no working Usb ports or any working SD slots. When i bought the computer it did not come with an intall disc or any way for me to re-install software. I have read a bit on this forum about similar problems but i really do not understand the jargon. not really a linux user. A further thing which may or may not be related is that when i try to access certain files such as the /etc file i get the error: could not open '/etc' the nautilis file manager is not running.
please help! am rather confused! have had to temporarily steal another laptop to post this plea!

I am Running a bog standard as shipped from factory ZG5 with no mods at all.