"A disk read error occurred" "Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart"

[Katman_09]

I have an IBM thinkpad (a friend of mine) that I'm trying to see what's wrong with it.  Whenever you start it up, it runs through the diagnostic tests and eventually provides the message listed in my subject.  I attempted to press f12 during one of the reboots since i saw something on here from someone else that had luck but didn't really see anything i felt comfortable about changing.  After i exited, it began rebooting and displayed the error "No operating system found".  I then turned the power off and began receiving the same message as i originally got "a disk read error occurred". 
Before i received the computer, my friend was told the hard drive was shot and there was no hope in retrieving any files.  Is this true?  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Frank

[Computer_Commando]

...Before i received the computer, my friend was told the hard drive was shot and there was no hope in retrieving any files.  Is this true?....

Your description seems to indicate this is true.

[OpenSource]

It is true the HDD is probably shot, but if you take it out and put it in an external enclosure there's a pretty good chance you'll at least be able to get some old files off of it.