Hi Ken,
Have you heard of "spinrite" from Steve Gibson of grc.com?
He's got the best disc recovery/maintenance app out there.
Cost you $89.00 US but well worth it.
All 180 kb of it.
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http://www.grc.com/default.htm
If the HDD is actually "stuffed", then all your files will be gone but give spinrite a try first.
It will try it's best to recover discs that would not boot & people have left the app running for days/weeks with excellent results.
The live Linux boot disc may help as well.
Do you have an external HDD of equal capacity of the internal one?
Say....250 Gig?
When you get your "stuff" back.....
Always pays to have a back-up.
I use Acronis True Image Home.
Yours for the measly price of just $59.99 Aus.
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http://www.acronis.com.au/homecomput...cts/trueimage/
Good luck.
Regards, L..