Corrupted/damaged hard drive need assistance with Recuva!

[gjcdigartntch]

People keep suggesting that I use Recuva to recover my mom's data. My mom has a 2005 Dell Inspiron 1501 with Windows XP Media Center. It has an 80 GB hard drive and it's corrupted or damaged. Because the computer was so old it stopped receiving internet access, it wouldn't get updates, an stopped shutting down. So we had no choice but to press the power button to shut it off. One day I turned it on and shut it off and turned it on again, I started getting beep codes and a blue screen of death. Another day I tried to take the hard drive and connect it to a SATA/USB adapter. The computer recognized the drive but when I clicked on it  I got a error message saying the drive is inaccessible, corrupted, and unreadable. So I tried chkdsk / f and chkdsk /r  in the command prompt and I got a another error message saying:

"Unable to determine version, volume or state."

So I am still thinking about going to a data recovery company to pay for their services. But I wonder will save money if I just use Recuva to save my mom's data.

If Recuva is a money saving option. Then Please show me how to use it pertaining to my situation. I know I could read the guide on the Recuva website but I am to afraid of making a mistake with my mom's data because my mom's doctoral thesis in on the drive. Please can someone walk me through on how to use Recuva. The user guide on the website is too complicated.