One thing to consider, even if the HD is fried and nothing you do from your end can get it working enough to recover the data, is that there are several data recovery companies out there.
They are not cheap, especially if it's so bad they have to physically remove the platters to recover data off them.
Basically using those companies becomes a question of balance as to how much that data is worth to you. And even then there is a possibility they may not be able to recover it all.
One person that fried his drive a few years ago was my accountant...and though it cost 2 grand to recover his data it was well worth it to him.
We had discussed several times here on the boards about the necessity of having constant backups. I hope with your problems and the ones Red Cherry just had others will see this and get some kind of back up in place. Especially with how cheap and easy to implement all the methods are today.
I wish you the best of luck ladydesigner in getting your data back, you must be going through hell right now
