You can get a cd based disto of Linux that will run fully from a cd called Knoppix (
www.knoppix.org).
You should be able to interrogate the disk with this method and then dump any data to CD/USB key.
There are plenty of data recovery companies that will do the job for hundreds rather than thousands, alternatively try Norton Systemworks for around £100
Just been looking around and there\'s something called Knoppix-STD which is a linux distro again on CD with lots of security tools, one of which is data recovery.
However - it is NOT for a beginner!
http://www.knoppix-std.org/index.html