Ignore the chkdsk... if the hard drive is damaged at a hardware level then it will do no good at repairs (except for covering up small holes), it can actually damage it more making it harder to recover. Using this is great if it's a software corruption, but if you are going to recover the data from a damaged disc, chkdsk will just make this harder or impossible.
Yes, you want to set the hard-drive as a slave or connect it from the computer via another like a laptop. The main hard-drive needs to have a valid working, clean, virus protected OS. Virus protection is a must!
You may need to get Hard Drive Recovery Software (there's a lot available but not normally quality ones for free) which slowly nibbles the data off the damaged HD discs. Some of the files recovered might be missing filenames, directory structures, etc and have to be pieced together manually.
This takes time depending on the amount of damage.
A lot of computer companies offer services to do this for you at a price which is probably less than the recovery software cost. High quality professional recovery software can cost up to $1000, depending on the amount of data to recover!
