Tried that. Knoppix first, then tried Ubuntu Rescue Remix (wouldn't even boot on my hardware) and Dr. Freeware (booted on an old PC I had in the basement, but didn't help).
You perverts may be in luck though. Using SpinRite I was at least able to verify that some of the drive was readable. The drive failed in a really weird way, but I'm not doing a RAW copy to a second hard drive. I might know in about 100 hours if anything is readable.
