Dell Inspiron 1764 startup

Friend's Dell Inspiron 1764 will not boot. Trie using startup repair, but that will overwrite some critical files that cannot be lost. Looking for any guidance

Just ran diag, got error code 0142 - hard drive, status 79

Continuing self diagnostic as I type, but wanted to get a jump on this in case someomne could help

 

Hi my friend , maybe the corruption of the hdd is the cause , take a look here :wave

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/software-os/f/3524/t/19242834.aspx?PageIndex=1

 

hard drive is gone
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/p/19469686/20199246.aspx

Pull the drive out of the laptop and attach it to a working computer by an adapter like this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812156034
You might be able to see and pull off the files you need.