One possibility is that just sector zero is bad, and the data is still there.

As mentioned earlier, remove the drive from the computer and plug it into a drive reader of a working computer. With luck, you have data.

When you replace that computer, look into one that has two drives working as a mirror. If one drive fails, the other will have everything. Just replace the failed drive and your data is backed up to the other drive again.

Good luck.

I use something like this.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00N1KXE9K?ref_=ams_ad_dp_ttl

UPDATE: I went out and bought the Acer Nitro I linked to in an earlier post. Bought two of them infact as my wife's computer is as old as my failed one if not a year or two older.
I took the 8gb of RAM out of mine and will put it in hers when I set it up.
I bought two 16gb sticks for mine so it's running 32gb with two slots remaining open for future use. I got an adapter cord to run my monitor via the HDMI out put of the video card into the DVI of the monitor. Probably not the best picture, but it beats having to look at the computer image on my TV.
I think the power supply went out on the old computer. Like I think I said, I found my cables to hook up the HDD's via a usb plug and they both spin. I still haven't tried to hook them up to this new box yet. Still finding my way around Win 10.
Anyone know how to disable the Norton that is preloaded on this machine?
So far, no complaints. Now I need to get to cleaning up the room as it looks worse than my work bench right now.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1579132451.JPG

Happy ending. The hard drive still works!
Like I said, I think the power supply packed it in and called it a day.

Nice, now back that **** up.