This happened to me with my Mac Book, it was a failed hard drive. Lost the lot I'm afraid. There is some stuff he might be able to do via entering short cuts mac + a etc, but I cant remember what they were, mac forums are normally pretty good for advice. Good luck!
Thanks, I'm sure that's not what he wants to hear though lol! Yeah I'm just about to have a look on there for him, fingers crossed.
In case anyone does know, this is the error log:
Verify and Repair volume “disk1s3”
Checking file systemChecking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking extents overflow file.
Checking catalog file.
Missing thread record (id = 56)
Missing thread record (id = 76)
Missing thread record (id = 91)
Missing thread record (id = 92)
Missing thread record (id = 93)
Missing thread record (id = 105)
Missing thread record (id = 168)
Missing thread record (id = 185)
Missing thread record (id = 380)
Missing thread record (id = 2346)
Missing thread record (id = 2349)
Missing thread record (id = 2358)
Missing thread record (id = 2414)
Missing thread record (id = 5605)
Missing thread record (id = 10407)
Missing thread record (id = 10683)
Missing thread record (id = 10691)
Missing thread record (id = 10696)
Missing thread record (id = 10698)
Missing thread record (id = 10833)
Missing thread record (id = 10834)
Missing thread record (id = 10841)
Missing thread record (id = 10845)
Missing thread record (id = 10877)
Missing thread record (id = 10909)
Missing thread record (id = 10980)
Missing thread record (id = 11018)
Missing thread record (id = 11041)
Missing thread record (id = 11862)
Missing thread record (id = 11968)
Missing thread record (id = 12184)
Missing thread record (id = 43302)
Missing thread record (id = 45248)
Missing thread record (id = 45632)
Missing thread record (id = 60363)
Missing thread record (id = 89658)
Missing thread record (id = 89678)
Missing thread record (id = 90763)
Missing thread record (id = 97064)
Missing thread record (id = 97092)
Missing thread record (id = 97776)
Missing thread record (id = 102464)
Missing thread record (id = 105493)
Missing thread record (id = 107271)
Missing thread record (id = 107485)
Missing thread record (id = 120348)
Missing thread record (id = 132579)
Missing thread record (id = 132677)
Missing thread record (id = 132681)
Missing thread record (id = 134622)
Missing thread record (id = 149862)
Missing thread record (id = 151892)
Missing thread record (id = 164301)
Missing thread record (id = 171544)
Missing thread record (id = 171581)
Missing thread record (id = 171954)
Missing thread record (id = 172531)
Missing thread record (id = 173545)
Missing thread record (id = 193657)
Missing thread record (id = 193667)
Missing thread record (id = 193718)
Missing thread record (id = 196248)
Missing thread record (id = 202145)
Missing thread record (id = 205931)
Missing thread record (id = 207605)
Missing thread record (id = 210291)
Missing thread record (id = 215143)
Missing thread record (id = 222005)
Missing thread record (id = 235038)
Missing thread record (id = 236589)
Missing thread record (id = 239642)
Missing thread record (id = 308449)
Missing thread record (id = 320737)
Missing thread record (id = 327744)
Missing thread record (id = 328639)
Missing thread record (id = 577256)
Missing thread record (id = 594657)
Missing thread record (id = 667324)
Missing thread record (id = 710501)
Missing thread record (id = 720513)
Missing thread record (id = 1277023)
Missing thread record (id = 1514746)
Missing thread record (id = 1525312)
Missing thread record (id = 1544075)
Incorrect number of thread records
Incorrect number of thread records
Checking multi-linked files.
Incorrect number of file hard links
Checking catalog hierarchy.
The volume could not be verified completely.
Volume repair complete.Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.Error: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.
