If you want to take the chance of ensuring your data cannot be recovered, you can TRY some home remedies - such as replacing the circuit board with an IDENTICAL board (down to the same firmware revision). But DO NOT open the drive up. This will almost certainly DESTROY all data.
An error like this is NOT a corruption - it's a failure of the hard drive itself. It doesn't matter what OS you use, you're not likely to recover anything. While I can't be certain, I suspect the recovery process at Gillware will involve removing the platters and, in a sense, putting them in a device that will act like a drive (all this done in a clean room)