That was my guess. I did boot a random Linux live CD I had lying around and could access the pictures on there so hopefully the stuff they want I can get off.
The other one is fixboot I think.
Will it fix my boot? It keeps dropping down on my head unexpectedly.
Keep them by the door, like any normal person would. Putting them on top of the wardrobe is just asking for it.
Definitely dead HDD. I used my USB to SATA cable (with my PATA USB dock providing the power (I think I need a proper SATA dock)) and Windows immediately said there is a problem with the drive. It's trying to do a scan and just clicking every now and then. Maybe I should stop it in case I break it more.
It's made your writing go all funny. Have you got one of those sci-fi viruses that can make the 'leap' from silicon to humans?
at least it didn't affect his sig
You're unlikely to 'break it more', it's probably the/an actuator arm that's fucked (or more accurately, stuck). But it could also be the pcb is shorted somewhere. Or the partition table is so messed up it literally doesn't know where to start.
I've had some luck with getting dead drives to 'randomly' restart after repeated efforts over several days (i.e. try it ten times in a row, leave it). If you do get it to spin up, you should treat it as the likely last chance you'll ever have to recover the data.