How to force read a external HDD(linux or windows)

[Trexxit]

Im working on 2 laptops for a client, 1 needed to be reset and the other was broke and she wanted the data off of it. I use a external HDD adapter, which i know works, I've tested it with 2 other drives in both ubuntu linux, and windows xp and 7. She complained about always getting BSOD on the laptop with the bad drive, to the point where it wouldn't boot up. So any idea how to make it force read?If this helps heres what happens when plugging in the drive to windows.
- *plugged into computer*
- green hdd light shows activity
- *drives show up in windows*
- I then try to open the drive and windows explorer freezes and i have to force quit, there are 3 partitions, one is a recover i believe as it is only 200mb with 160 free. That drive will display properties.
- I try opening the other 2 partitions, and windows explorer freezes, wont display any properties or size of the partition.
In Linux the drive doesn't even show. I'm rather new to bad HDD data reecovery, please help?

 

[2x4b]

Try file recovery software instead of windows explorer. I've had some good luck with "Recover My Files". (http://www.recovermyfiles.com/)

 

[fzabkar]

Clone the drives, sector by sector, with a tool (eg ddrescue) that understands how to work around bad media. Ddrescue maintains a log so that it can resume after an interruption.