Is it possible to get pictures off crashed hard...

Question

I think my hard drive crashed. The computer screen turned blue and said restart if you haven't seen this screen before. I restarted and the screen was black. I had two options on screen, one set up utility or reboot. Neither one helped. Could not reboot. I ran IDE diagnostics and results said: Drive 0 WDC WD1200JB - fail return code 7. Don't know what that is. I have pics of my brother who passed away on my computer and that is why I am so desperate to try to retrieve them. I just purchased an external hard drive and didn't back them up in time. Just please be honest and tell me am I wasting my time. I don't want to get my hopes up. I have been told I could have them retrieved and others have told me if the hard drive crashed not to waste my time.