Scan hanging from 0%?

Hello, i'm attempting to recover files from an HDD that is potentially failing/crashed due to "disk read error." I have used Recova in the past to save info off a dying HDD with 100% success so I was hopeful that it would find my files again. But whenever I start a scan, the screen hangs at "0% complete, Calculating Time Left...." but it doesn't calculate a time and never updates. I can't tell if it's working or not? Here's a basic history:

A regular scan told me I needed to format the drive (1TB Samsung). Obviously I didn't do that, but it was reading as RAW so I did a quick format to restore the NTFS file system (I'm on Windows 7.) I began running a deep scan, which read "0% Complete, 14 Files found" and then calculating time. After about 2 hours it jumped up to 2% completion, still only 14 files found, and gave me something like 12 hours to completion. I know it's a huge drive so will take longer even than 12 hours. I went to sleep, checked on it in the morning, and it was back to 0% - and, oddly, was no longer even scanning the correct drive. Figuring some bug happened, I deleted Recova and downloaded the latest version instead. Ran a deep scan... and now it doesn't display any info at all, just "Calculating Time Left" in a blank window with a progress bar that shows no progress. It also takes an inordinate amount of time to even open the program, and I know it's not an issue with my computer, because I copied the program to a different system and it had the same problem. Takes ~10 for Recova to even open.

So my question is: should I assume my HDD is dead and cut my losses? Or is this a problem with Recova itself? Or should I just let the scan run without showing any progress and hope it's actually working?

Any other solutions for how I can move forward are helpful. Thanks!