Crashed Hard Drive

A user installed an upgrade to a program. Upon rebooting, user received the dreaded blue screen of death (STOP error). I hooked up the hard drive to my PC with a USB adapter, and when I try to access the drive (via My Computer), I get the hourglass for several minutes, then the following error: Semaphore timeout period as expired. Currently I am freezing the HD, in hopes that I can retrieve data. Any other suggestions on how I might be able to access any data? I fear that the HD is terminally dead.

Thank you,

Kevin