I have tried it but I can't really find any use for it.

My experience is that if the BIOS can detect the drive, then I can image it and work on the image. I don't think MHDD can help with reading a faulty drive. I don't see how it can do anything that the drive controller doesn't already do for you.

I haven't seen a case where the BIOS cannot detect the drive, but MHDD can. That would be useful.

I suppose it could be useful for someone who would want to continue using a faulty drive, but that's not what I recommend to my clients. Drives are cheap and it's not worth putting data at risk by using a drive that has failed once.

The software is "non-free" and runs in DOS, so I couldn't distribute it with the rescue-remix even if it was useful.

Thanks Andrew!

Your response makes sense. If the damaged drive is recognized by BIOS, then chances are good that gddrescue will be able to pull an image.

So in the case when the drive is not recognized by BIOS, how can we image the drive or get to the data on it? ...without calling a pro data recovery service...

When is a device like the PC-3000 needed? I've read lots of reviews and success stories from it. But what is the specific benefit? What can it do that we cannot do with the tools in Ubuntu Rescue Remix?

At what point do you know recovery is not possible by software means?

I don't know much about those devices. In theory, a device like PC-3000 deals with the drive in the same way as you would using your computer: through an IDE, SCSI or (S)ATA interface. Those interfaces are not very rich.

Perhaps there are ways to deal with the drive settings or firmware on the drive's board through those interfaces, but if the motherboard cannot detect the drive, I don't know is those devices will be any more effective than your off-the-shelf PC.

Certainly, recovery is not possible through software if the drive does not talk to the motherboard.