HDD Details: WD3200BEVT (320 GB), 2.5yrs old, always used as internal drive.
Symptoms:
HDD crashed - went undiscoverable in POST after windows crash.
Strange read noise (occurs 5 times for abt 1 sec each) when plugged in to USB
Now when connected using an external enclosure it shows up as 2 TB from R-Studio Demo/Recover My Files v4 and from Vista Disk Management. (And the seemed to take forever to scan. An RMF v4 scan s till goin for 31 hrs - 14%.)
The reasons im pumped to recover data DYI -
a) The fact that the hdd is *discoverable* from recovery softwares
b) The HDD has got our baby photos -

and im not sure if i can afford $1000s to fix the hdd.
Question:
Can someone tell me if i can recover my data DYI? Can the HDD be recovered from software level? if yes, what tools can anyone suggest? i'm happy to buy them if i need to.
NOTE:
The drive was covered in Dell warranty and they have happily replaced the drie, however i have to return the broken drive in 10 days.