Samsung Galaxy S II :: Switched Off And Died For Some Unknown Reason

My samsung galaxy SII had been playing up, crashing etc for a couple of weeks, then for some unknown reason, it froze and died on me, never to be switched back on again. It has been well looked after so it hasn't been water damaged or dropped or anything of the sort. The battery was about 50% charged, I've also tried using somebody else's battery, tried connecting it to a PC, tried to start it whilst its connected to the charger and everything else I could think of but nothing. My main problem, is that I've been in touch with samsung and they asked to send the phone to them for repair, but told me that everything will be erased.

Now I know I am totally stupid for not backing up all of my media etc, but the information stored on the phone is worth more to me than what the phone is itself. Although the phone is totally dead and will not switch on, so how I can access my pictures/videos etc because surely it must be still stored on the phone somewhere. The phone itself is not as important to me as much as the media stored on it and I am willing to try anything to access my media files even if it means my phone isn't able to go for repair, I know I am going to receive comments for not backing up my media.