How bad is the hdd? Is it a hardware problem (as in the plates not turning?) If the system can detect it, then you might have a chance of repairing it via Spinrite 6. Spinrite 6 is used to recover data and heal hard drives:
http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm
I use this in addition to Easytrack Recovery for data recovery. If you care about the Hard Drive alone, then I guess Spinrite 6 is enough.