sshd won't start

I know that using ssh has it's risks, i did however had ssh access mapped over the internet. As soon as the problems started i removed all mappings. My password is considered strong. I did consider the possibility i was hacked (any chance of finding that out via the logs e.a. weird ip adress connection on ssh??). Thanks to the nasinfo add-on i can still see what processes are running and which connections are made. Nothing weird to see there so if i was 'hacked' it sure was useless but maybe the hacker made a mistake and disabled my sshd beyond normal repair?!? Still a lot of maybe's. I'd really like to confirme things using logfiles. I can find many log files but they contain so much info i don't know where to start looking.

Will a firmware reinstall from the boot menu destroy my shares? And more important my Timemachine vault? (I can't risk to loose the timemachine as i'm waiting on a repair of my Macbook Pro).