I think you will have your best luck with a Linux Live CD (even though they are called "Live CDs", they can be installed on other media, such as a thumb drive or another hard drive) with appropriate tools included.
The way this works is you boot to the Linux OS, it is run from the CD itself (not on your hard drive, no installation necessary) your OS never has a chance to change data on the drive. Then the tools are there to recover, basically, anything. Do some searching online to find something people like; data recovery is not for the faint of heart. The reason is the best, most reliable tools recover *everything* and then you're faced with the task of wading through everything to get what you really want. A typical modern OS may have hundreds of thousands of files on a drive.
Now, if you are seeking out specific file types it gets a little easier. There are tools that will only pull, say, .jpg extension files, for example. That makes is somewhat easier, although you will also find a lot of applications store internal files in various graphics formats (or text formats, or name it). So there will still be a lot of digging to get what you want.
Further down the recovery "ladder", if you will, are tools that are simple to use but may miss documents you want recovered. But the workload is much reduced after the files are recovered and it's time to get what you need back.
There are many possible options to consider, but for example there is:
Ubuntu Rescue Remix (Live CD)
DDrescue ...does a block by block copy from a failed drive. Runs on a Linux Live CD, like Ubuntu.Takes forever (days if your drive is in GBs) but gets everything that can be read (ie not copied over). Sometimes damaged drives still leave enough of a file to recover later.
SystemRescueCD
http://www.system-rescue-cd.org
There are Forensic Tools that will copy bit-by-bit from a drive, and all good forensic tools mount the drive as read-only, so that no data can be altered by, well, anything, from the OS to a poorly behaving application, including poorly behaving recovery software.
Thumb Drives ... not included when you buy your thumb drive, usually, but manufacturers of flash memory often have data recovery tools you can download and use. Don't be set aback if they say they are for cameras only. Check the major flash memory vendors' websites. I used one from SanDisk once, but do some checking and see what Verbatim, Lexar, etc have and don't overlook LaCie.
TestDisk - data recovery and hardware repair live CD.
https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
CAINE Linux (best to burn to DVD-ROM or thumb drive at least 3GB in size
CAINE is a full blown Foresnic Data tool ... basically the level that the cops and black hats use. Complex, but absolutely will recover data, even if other tools fail, including data that has been written over. Not particularly user friendly if you're not familiar with LInux, but much better than most.
https://www.caine-live.net
There are many, many others but in many cases it's paid software, that you don't really know if it works until after you part with your hard earned cash. Most are kind of lightweight, actually (may not recover what you want). But if you need a Windows app (or MacOS) that's probably what you will find offered. Linux tools are free.
It's been a while since I've had to recover from a failed drive but it definitely can be done. Last one I did was from a basic Atom-CPU laptop running Windows10, and he only wanted his music back. Got it all, put a new drive in his machine, and he was off to the races. Last summer sometime.
