I have a cumputer that has a white screen and a friend said it was toast . I need to get the pictures off and he said that apple might be able to get the hardrive going to remove the pictures . Please help because its pictures of my kids from 10 year

Without knowing exact details about your computer model and operating system version, it is often possible to remove the internal hard drive and then connect it to an external USB adapter. One adapter example would be http://www.newertech.com/products/usb3_universaldriveadap.php, but there are similar devices to be found in many local computer stores. The adapter could be connected to another Mac, thus allowing file retrieval from the hard disk. If connected to a Windows PC, special software (such as MacDrive) would be needed.

Since this is important to you, do ask someone with the necessary expertise for assistance before attempting to recover any files. An Apple service provider in your country (https://locate.apple.com/country) could possibly help you.

Great advice from Jan as always, but do you have the Install Disc?

Does it boot from that?

You have learned you lesson. You need at least three backups of any data you want to keep. One of the backups should be off site. Cloud is a good place for off site.

R