Need to get files off an Unbootable hard drive

The hard drive in my HP laptop which is a Western Digital SATA hard drive recently crashed. The operating system on the hard drive was windows 7. After it crashed, when I started it again it said unbootable hard drive. I took the hard drive out of my laptop and connected it to my desktop which has XP on it, using an USB 2.0 to IDE SATA HDD Adapter Cable. I have tried a lot of data recovery software to see if I can get my files back and none of them work. If anyone has an idea or solution to my problem please let me know.

 

have you actually set the drive to slave?

 

Is it able to recognize the external hard drive at all.I use a program called Recuva And it worked for me.

http://www.afterdawn.com/software/desktop/file_recovery/recuva.cfm

 

When I had the hard drive in the laptop it was seen by the bios, also the hard drive just makes a beeping sound constantly.

 

Try booting with Linux live cd or USB stick.
I used the installer to make a live boot USB stick.

These are the notes I made:
=======================================================================================
To install Linux Puppy on a pen drive (usb flash drive), download and run the Universal Installer GUI.

Step 1 look for Linux Puppy 4.3.1 iso download in the drop down menu and optionally check the box to download the file.

Step 2 browse to the iso that was downloaded.

Step 3 (carefully) select the USB drive to install the iso.


http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/

Note that the downloaded ISO archive can be opened/examined using 7-Zip.
7-Zip shows the files in lower case while mounting the iso on a virtual drive and using Explorer shows the files in upper case.
Lower case is correct and the example file 'PUP_430.SFS' in Explorer, should actually be 'pup-430.sfs'
Note the - [dash] which is legal in Linux is rendered _ [underscore] in Explorer.
==========================================================
If required set the PC bios to boot from a usb device.

On booting, before Windows starts, typically tap the F8 key to bring up the boot menu.
Select the appropriate device to boot into Linux.

 

yeah,thanks ddp,i should have read it more carefully the first time.