sql 7 is way old now - you might want to make sure the sql service is actually running in the services tab on the server. If it's not and you can't restart the service make sure a backup or something doesn't have a lock on any of the system databases files.
depending on many things you might want to go for server restart. This was posted to the wrong forum btw.
[font="Comic Sans MS"]The GrumpyOldDBA[/font]
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