Wasn't there a thread on HDD data recovery and backup programs for windoze here recently? I recall reading it somewhere (could have been on an email list I'm on but couldn't find it in my messages there).
As luck would have it a friend came round with a dead HDD - well not so much dead as it kept spinning up with a rather uncertain sound as if the motor speed was fluctuating, accompanied by loud clunking noises as if the heads kept getting parked (sort of sound you get when a HDD powers down). Completely inaccessible, but probably recoverable if she wanted to pay £loadsa to the sort of folks who can take the platter out and read it in another drive.
As I recall there was also a discussion of snapshot-type backup progs for windoze, of which there seemed to be quite a few. Which of course is what she should have been using and ought to from now on. I just wanted to find out what's available. (I have a hand-rolled 'copy with hard links and rsync' type snapshot backup to external HDD on my own linux system.)