PS3 bit the dust, advice on how to back up HDD / suggestions for repair?

[Stry8993]

Hey folks, so, my PS3 has the ol' YLOD. I bought this used, and hadn't realized that the previous owner had had it modded, to cap the fan speed, so, it more or less overheated. I took it apart and tried repasting, and when putting it back together now, the fan screams super loudly on power on, and then YLODs.

I don't want to lose the data on my hard drive, but I want to get this shipped off somewhere for repair. So my two questions are

1) How can I back up the HDD contents with no access to the Playstation 3?
2) Anyone recommend a reputable repair in Western Canada, or Canada in General?

 

[Sulfvr]

1) you cannot backup that HDD without its EID Root Key which is needed to decrypt it on PC. You'll have to get your ps3 repaired first, so you can boot it up and dump the ERK afterwards.

 

[Stry8993]

That was a hunch I'd had. Do you know of a list of people in good standing in the community who repair the consoles?