disk read error

[Something Else]

friend of mine's girlfriend has had a problem with her laptop

when it boots it gets disk read error, am i correct in thinking this is the hard drive?

if it does turn out to be the hardrive is there anyway to retrieve any data off the dead drive?

 

[Something Else]

cheers guys, i would help him out now but im away with work and he doesnt know anything about computers/laptops. ive told him to take it to a good repair shop and ask the guy there if he can pull any data off.