Help me recover files from an old hard drive

[iNk]

I got an old 40 gig IBM hdd with files on it that I need. My current PC doesn't even detect it when I boot up. So I took it to my bro's PC and it gives me the following error, "failure loading operating system". That is when I totally disconnect my bro's hdd and attach mine on IDE 1 (set to master). I also tried setting it to slave on IDE 1 while my bro's hdd is set to master. In that scenario the PC boots up and I can see that my hdd is detected, but when I go to open or explore the hdd, it tells me that "the drive is not formatted, would you like to format?". Thats when I click no and nothing happens. See, I do not want to format it because I will lose all the files on it that I need. I just want to copy certain files off of the drive and then deal with them from there.

So now that you know that.... my question is, how do I recover files off the hdd? Is there some kind of recovery program out there that I could use to do so? Or is the drive just completely and utterly shot. I guess I should mention that there is an OS on the hdd as well (Windows XP).

[Confederate]

there is a program called easy recovery pro that I use, and I've had good luck with it

[Lasereth]

When it asks if you want to format the drive like that, it means there's a jumper problem. My friend's computer was doing the same thing. We couldn't get it to read correctly. I KNOW we had the jumpers set correctly, but it still wouldn't read it right. He got it to work by changing the jumpers around into different positions/trying on different cables, etc. I'm pretty sure it's simply a jumper issue.

-Lasereth