Even if the disk won't come up in windows, the data could still be recovered. There are utility programs out there. I'd go old school and look for something called a Hex Editor. This will allow low level access to the drive data and should have some recovery tools so you can pull out data to another drive. I have done this to a limited degree myself.

But it all depends on how important it is to you.

What I do now is all my drives are in removable drive enclosures. I power down, use a key to unlock the drive, and slide it out. Further, I buy all my drives in multiples of the same make/model. For archiving/backup purposes, I simply clone the entire disk. The software I use for the above recovery issue also allows me to do the cloning.

WinHex - http://www.x-ways.net/winhex/index-m.html

You can try before you buy.

Brian