Help wanted re "sudden super-slowing".

Question

Dear all,
I was doing a daily routine - writing and printing of MS Word Docs. I selected about 7 docs (each was one or two pages) and tried to open (Command + O) them simultaneously. I was using no ther apps. RAM 1GB; 4.7 GB HDD left out of 80GB.
It seemed that MS was openg them in SUPER SLOW speed!. Only the outline of MS Word doc frame showed but not the doc itself. Then Word was not responding at CommandOptionesc.
I have force quit OS by pressing CommandShiftPower. Then EVERYTHING has gone wrong. Booting itself took more than 15 min! On top of it, opening a folder took more than 2 min! I can't do anything.....
I have tried to investigate it in a FireWire Disk Mode booted up from my iBook. I could access all the files but nothing more to do. DiskUtility has failed to mount its HDD to repair.
I have tried to reinstall OS using Tiger 10.4 Updater Disk but failed. It read '...eror occured...try again' on top of the dialogue box.
What has gone wrong? Is there anything I can do?
I'm in hurry cause I need to finish something before deadline.
Please help!
Regards,
JH

Answer 1

Dear JH,
You may have already read this link, but I am including it just in case.
Data recovery
I have no experience with ProSoft's Data Rescue II, other third party recovery utilities, or professional data recovery services and am unable to offer first - hand advice to help you in those areas.
For your consideration:
1. If you indeed have both a mechanical problem as well as problems from an over - full hard drive — and if your data is important enough — play it safe and see what the professionals can do. The main pages for both DriveSavers and Data Savers indicate that if they cannot recover your data there is no charge.
2. If your budget or deadline does not allow you to send the drive to a professional, then you will have to do your best on your own using a third party utility and another drive which is large enough to hold your data without getting too full.
You wrote in your first post: "I have tried to investigate it in a FireWire Disk Mode booted up from my iBook. I could access all the files but nothing more to do."
Are you no longer able to mount the drive as the target disk?
Do you have older versions of your data in your backups which you can use to begin re - creating your work?
Do you have hard copies which can be manually re - created or scanned to get you back on track?
Sincerely,
No Alibi.
 Backup what you can't afford to lose.   Mac OS X (10.4.8)