If you're sure it's the HD, do what was suggested earlier. 1) Set BIOS to boot to a CD or USB stick 2) Put Linux on CD/USB (Knoppix worked well for me in the past) 3) Boot Linux, grab files from hard drive - save to USB stick (same one or another one) 4) Remove porn via: Larger = better. Large enough to scratch the platters, because a lot of the new HDs these days are pretty good at handling small/medium gaussian fields. Option 4 is the nuclear option -- you'll never get that hard drive back again, short of some drastic and expensive forensic methods.