Update on the dead HDD, it is dead!
But a friend of Michael's managed to get the data transferred to an external HDD.
So I bought a new HDD and it has been formatted and I think XP has been installed. I think, means that this is what I requested, but not necessarily what was installed.
Now the new problem is that when trying to install the drivers for the GFX card it blue screens and goes in to memory dump?
I have been informed that I can use it, but..... the graphics may look a bit strange.... ':|
Apparently this problem is beyond the boy geniuses who have tried to fix it.