Evan Platt wrote:

Have you tried PCInspector? I've had luck recovering files with it, but
have not tried recovering damaged files as the homepage states it can
do. http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/uk/welcome.htm

IMHO, the best solution for this problem, and a way to possibly keep the
drive running for a long time to come, is SpinRite. Certainly not
freeware, and actually expensive at 90 bucks, but if I had to face 5
hours of tedium copying files, I'd go to
http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm and download a copy. SpinRite can
realign the heads with the data and that solves a lot of problems like
the sort you are having. I've owned some version of SpinRite for close
to 15 years and have seen it perform miracles on damaged drives.
SpinRite is not fast - it will take more than Philo's five hours to
finish a drive's readjustment - but you will not only get your data back
but your drive too.

SgtMinor wrote:

....
first, preferrably with dd_rescue from a liveCD (knoppix, r.i.p).

Again, this is stressing the drive to a great extent. It may work well, but
do it only after you saved off your recovery image first.
--
vista policy violation: Microsoft optical mouse found penguin patterns
on mousepad. Partition scan in progress to remove offending
incompatible products. Reactivate MS software.
Linux 2.6.17-mm1,Xorg7.1/nvidia [LinuxCounter#295241,ICQ#4918962]

Walter Mautner wrote:
"Stressing the drive?" The problem with not reading the data is not
because the drive has become old, weak, and feeble, but because the data
are no longer accessible to the heads because of misalignment. How many
drives have you destroyed by using SpinRite? Have you ever used SpinRite?