Is this the boot drive?
It's likely dead, but if you even have a CHANCE of recovering data you should wait until you have the best chance.
1) a USB enclosed case, or open Thermaltake BlacX is the easiest method (if it can read then COPY to another drive)
2) you can boot to a diagnostics CD http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ (shdiag, or Seatools). Don't do any DESTRUCTIVE testing.
*I had a DAMAGED hard drive and almost gave up, but I managed to recover with "EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard Pro". http://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/ I set it to COMPLETE RECOVERY I believe, which spent a LONG time just scanning the drive (hours).
**If you do NOT have a Windows drive, you'll need this program (no guarantees) to create a boot disk so you'll need the boot disk, the damaged drive, and another drive with enough space to backup to (remove any other unnecessary drives):
http://easeus.com/data-recovery-wizard-winpe/
I can't speak for other free programs for the "TestDisk" software on the ultimatebootcd or whether EASEUS can be found cheaper (cough torrent cough).
My 2TB drive was completely unreadable by some software, could not be read by all until EASEUS and then I copied the 95% full drive data to a second 2TB drive (more than 24 hours?); it took a long time.
(I recommend trying EASEUS first, or take your chance with TestDisk. I can't re
Good luck!!
In the FUTURE, may I recommend:
1) Acronis True Image (full or free. Seagate/WD free versions exist) to IMAGE the Windows partition, and
2) Synchbackse FREE version to copy entire folders, such as the "Documents" folder.
*My dad has Windows on an SSD and two other drives. The other drives COULD have been set as RAID1, but I have it set to backup like this:
a) Syncbackse free - checks the DOCUMENTS folder daily (Windows SSD). Copies only new data.
b) Syncbackse free -checks the PICTURES folder daily (large folder on 1st hard drive). Copies only new data.
c) Acronis True Image - makes INCREMENTAL IMAGE backup of Windows drive (compressed) every week. AUTOMATIC. Free version is MANUAL.