Recovering data from an unallocated drive

[Fuzz]

Got home from holiday and my neighbour is having a few issues with his PC in that it fails to boot.
Looks like after a few checks the HDD is at fault.
So I've taken it out and put it in a USB caddy and tried to access it.
I managed to initialize the disk but it is still classed as "unallocated"
Having done a little searching through threads on here "recuva" software was recommended, however it requires a drive letter to be input to recover from.

Any suggestions.


Will now try to connect direct with IDE cable to see it that gets me anywhere...

 

[Fuzz]

Done a create New simple volume, assigned it a drive letter and told it not to format the drive.
However the drive is still inaccessible and does not contain a recognised a file system" :?

Keeps asking me to format the drive.

 

[Fuzz]

It's back in the main PC now and I've ran the Recovery console..
CHKDSK tells me
"the volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems"

FIXBOOT tells me
"Cannot find the system drive or the drive specified is not valid"

I am now hovering over the FIXMBR "Yes" command..
Is it worth hitting yes here or is that likely to be one of those roads you don't want to go down.

I realise "format" would be a really bad idea at the current time.

Off in search of "testdisk" now..

 

[Fuzz]

un packed zip of testdisk but cant workout how to make a boot disk for it to check the drive in the Main PC.
Owner fed up now and taking drive to the purple shirt brigade on Monday :/