i am going to perservere, but the guy that helped me was really nice and didnt charge me when they usually charge £50 and he was doing it for 2 hours, he did all the different routes and set ups and scans and it came up with an error on that on the doc something. the old style screen thing... anyway... it came up with an error and was really slow to do anything and bring this up, and the computer wouldnt start as there was a problem with accessing anything... so he took the hard drive out and tried to get the info off there but it wouldnt let u access it, and apparently the harddrive is physically damaged, and the needle is broken... they said there is a possibility i could get a new hard drive but theres no guarentee that the computer inside hasnt been damaged too, as apparently the fact it got very hot signified a problem, which to the untrained eye i overloooked as just being a laptop...

anyway, im going to ring some data recovery places tomorrow and see what they say, but at the end of the day my essays r in for tomorrow and ive got no computer... not having a good day still not sunk in

thanks for all the advice tho i appreciate it.. if anyone can recommend anywhere in kent/birmingham id appreciate it

katie xx