General :: Get Data / Files From A Phone With Screen Not Working

I was sitting in a van/car when my phone fell out of my pants and onto the pavement. It was about a 3 feet fall. At first my phone seemed to be ok. There wasn't any scratches or cracks because it landed flat the screen facing up. But maybe about an hour later a small part of the screen was beginning to become dark. This dark area continued to get bigger after a couple of hours and by the end of the day the screen was completely "blacked out".

And silly me was too ocuppied playing with a guitar I had just bought instead of thinking about backing up or copying my important data from my phone, like pictures and notes etc. So later when I plugged my phone into my computer, I found out that I couldn't access the phones files like I would do on Hardisk taken from i.e. a laptop. When I go to Computer on Windows and look for my phone which is appearing as GT-I9100 as a camera and when I click on it says folder is empty. So I realized that I might not be able to get my data from my phone in case I get a new phone from the dealer.

I'm not very familiar with Android devices but I'm wondering if it's because I have a screen lock password that I can't get to the data on my phone?

PS - I'm thinking this is one those classic examples of, "You should have backed up everything on your phone everyday" scenario. Luckly I have most the pictures on my phone transferred to my computer already.