computer not working

Can you remove the hard drive?


If so, with a suitable adapter you can add it as an extra drive on another PC. The adapter will be dependent on drive type but most can found.

Then copy every data file and such off the drive.

It sounds like the hard disk has failed or been corrupted. If you have another PC and reasonably confident with technical things you could download and burn a linux iso image to DVD that would allow you to boot the PC and get files off if the disk is just corrupted.
If all that sounds too difficult your best bet would be a PC repair shop. If the problem is simply disk corruption they should be able to get it going again. If the disk is effectively dead then only an expensive data recovery process by a specialist company will get files off and a brand new disk will be needed to get the laptop working.

Do you hear anything from the hard disk area when it is starting up - a recurring ticking noise for instance? That would normally be a bad sign indicating the drive has had a mechanical failure of some sort. However you should hear the drive spin up - unless it's a solid state drive.
Is the recovery disk you have specific for that laptop? Most modern PCs and laptops are designed such that they have a hidden partition on the hard disk which holds an image of the original build. This is normally accessed by hitting a specific key whilst the laptop is starting up - black screen. Most have an option to do a clean build ie take it back to day 1 or a restore of operating system but retaining data. If you google the laptop type and word recovery you'll most likely get the process by which you'd access this recovery mode.
I appreciate it's no help if your hard disk has failed but replacement hard disks are relatively cheap - about 10-20% of the cost of a replacement laptop. They are easy to fit normally on a laptop as there is usually a dedicated access cover for the hard disk.

And DO NOT take any more pictures using your current SD cards. Then, if you have lost any recent image files, they may be recoverable from your SD cards

Does this link from Microsoft help at all? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321626

Hi What was the last thing you were doing before this happened? Did you install anything or change any settings? this could be a few things and as others have suggested if you can remove the hard drive you should be able to get it connected to another working system and try to recover, however if this is the result of a virus your should be careful with that. First of all if you know how, go to the BIOS and check to see if it can see the hard disk in the first instance. Then we can go from there.

Will

Next - run an additional AV scan and then the Malware bytes scan. Just in case.

Follow that with a Disc Defrag.

Then find a suitable Hard Disc Analyser/Diagnostic App to check the disk for any errors or dodgy sectors.

Glad it's going again,
From your description, it sounds as though your hard drive is okay. I'd suspect that the partition information may have been lost, which would explain why the Windows Recovery Console reported that no hard drive could be detected.
You may be able to get to the bottom of it by using a free recovery tool called TestDisk. It's a Linux tool and you'll have use another computer to download a Live distribution, which includes TestDisk. (Live distributions are Linux OSes that run directly off a CD or USB flash drive.)
One distribution you might like to try is KNOPPIX, which comes with TestDisk. Burn the ISO to a CD, or use a tool such as the Universal USB Installer to boot your PC.
Run TestDisk from a terminal window and follow the instructions provided.
Alternatively, connect your hard disk to a working PC and run the Windows version of TestDisk. It's the same command line tool, there's not much real difference between the Windows and Linux versions.
If you have an available desktop P.C. It'd likely be easier and quicker to just bung it in that to test it, then back those pics up, you just can't have enough backups...