Last night our PC decided to pack up. It looks like its the hard-drive. Anyway, when I spoke to Gary, he informed me that not only had the work PC done the same, but also his friends PC!! So thats 3 totally independant PC's, where we all know each other all with HD failure on the same day!!

Anyway, we have plugged the HD's onto a known PC to try and lift the files off them and got the following results.....

Gary's HD - Totally fooked. Makes all kinds of odd noises.

Gary's Friends HD - Success, all files accessed.

Our HD - I can browse parts of it. I can see all the Program files, all of the Windows folder and all of one of the User sections (including sub-folders). I can't open the 'HP_Owner' folder to get to our desktop files though, which is where the main stuff is that I need. However, when I look at the properties of the drive, it has the expected capacity (181gb Total, 61.6gb free), which must mean that it can see the files, but I cannot access them.

The only thing I can suggest is that perhaps because we have to enter a password at the Windows login screen that it won't let me browse the folder? Is there a way through this? Or is there some software that will let me browse the entire HD?

It is devastating because that HD contains all the photos of our bungalow renovation, holidays, weddings and many other things that are not replacable. I know we should have backed them up, but stupidly didn't.

HELP!!! <<<Real tears.....