If the hard drive still operates (and in many -- maybe 'most' cases even if it won't) then the files can be recovered with greater or lesser ease. That is, if the hard drive is of recent vintage, so that it can connect with other controllers, then it can always be physically removed from the current machine and placed into another, or connected in a temporary way to copy files to an already-installed hard drive in another machine. This would be the case no matter what shape its own computer was. On the other hand, if the computer does still operate, but you suspect it's going bad, then the easiest thing would be to acquire (buy or borrow) an external hard drive that connects by USB to the current machine, and copy files to that. This isn't a good way to copy most executable program files that require installation routines, but it's fine for data files (spreadsheets, databases, word processing files, photos, music, etc.) Do it soon; the sooner the better. If the hard drive quits working then the file recovery can still be done, BUT ... you'll most likely lose some (maybe a lot) of data, and the recovery may cost $$$ if you can't do the recovery yourself.