Thanks to the efforts of Alex and Dan at Computer Plaza, I have a fixed laptop with a clean OS installation. They weren't able to save any useful data but at least the thing works. I've spent a fair few hours downloading and installing stuff from the Lenovo website so as to get back to something like the OEM setup with all the bells and whistles such as the HDD impact-protection, the dedicated extra keys and all of the other original ThinkVantage utilities.
I'm still missing all emails/addresses/attachments, address-book data, organiser data, maps, 30+ years of walking routes, CVs, e-books, employment details, purchase records, service agreements and a few other things, but most of the apps have now been reinstalled.
I'm a tad happier now.
I guess that I have a lot of catching-up to do - Google Reader says that I have 983 posts to read 😯
I'll do another back-up first, though 
THE SMALL(ish) PRINT... (updated 23/07/2016)
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Better steer clear of those Russian websites in future 😯 😉
Russian websites, Robin?
I know little of such things. As you're an expert, you'll have to enlighten us
Only a rumour 😆
Russian...? Being so young and innocent, I'd need you to explain...