What is the best way to rescue data from an inaccessible hard drive?

The laptop was dropped and was unable to boot form windows. It gets as far as the loading screen, then automatically reboots. It was taken to my university's computer department to be looked at. While they said there was nothing physically wrong with the hard drive, they opted to replace it (covered under the warranty). They provide a backup service for school data, but not for music and pictures (the later of which are irreplaceable and are the goal for this issue).



Now, because they went in to do the back up, I know it is possible to access files, meaning that the drive is not fired.



My first attempt was to use a linux os boot disk (specifically slax) and got it running, however it would not read any hard drive.



What is the best way to get the files off without going to a unnecessarily expensive computer repair store (as they always tend to be?)



Thanks!What is the best way to rescue data from an inaccessible hard drive?
take your laptop in to a local computer shop. It seems the smaller the shop, the bigger the nerds inside, and the lower the prices.



If you really want that data, you may need to pay.
if you have a normal desktop computer maybe you could set up the laptop hard disk as a second hard disk on laptop and then read the files off the disk. if the disk was damaged you could try a free or trial version of hard disk recovery program. (cont recollect any of top of head).

is it possible your linux cd doesnt read your hard disk off of your laptop model (meaning a different boot cd/dvd or usb might work?).What is the best way to rescue data from an inaccessible hard drive?
Try knoppix first. It will install and run from a cd and is supposed to be able to read your hard drive.
USE A SEARCH ANDS RECOVER PROGRAM THEY ARE OUT THERE...What is the best way to rescue data from an inaccessible hard drive?
Losing data on a hard drive is the worst nightmare of any computer owner. However, some hard drive problems can be easily fixed yourself by using easily available tools. I found the info at http://fixit.in useful