First things first, you need a new hard drive. It can be external if you want. But you have to be able to mount it as a directory in DSL (Damn Small Linux)

Now you need to borrow someone else computer (cause yours is screwed right?).
Download DSL (damn small linux)Just goggle “Damn Small Linux Download”, you’ll find it. Got it? Good, now boot it.
After booting you will see the GUI of the DSL, run TERMINAL
and follow this command

*Note: this command will make you a super user in DSL

#sudo su

*Note: this command will mount you HDD on DSL

#mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1

*Note: this command will check if your data is still on the HDD

#cd /mnt/hda1
#ls -al Found any data? If not stop here and cry.

If yes move on.
Since you already have you new hard drive connected to your PC just run this command series.
#mount /dev/hdc1 /mnt/hdc1
#cd /mnt/hdc1
#mkdir backup
#cp -R /mnt/hda1/*.* /mnt/hdc1/backup