Well now you put you HD into a case reveals very easy steps. Putting your HD into an external case is the correct and best thing for it. Follow these steps and if your data is on there youll find it (hopefully if it all goes well).

1.Connect your old HD in case to new laptop.
2.Download free program Recuva or something like it from the internet.
3.Use Recuva to scan your old drive for deleted, unreadable, corrupted and damaged files from damaged or unusable drive.
4.Select files to recover.

WARNING: DO NOT GO TO MY COMPUTER AND TRY TO OPEN THE DRIVE MANUALLY. STANDARD EXPLORER BEHAVIOUR IS TO TELL YOU THAT THE DRIVE AT HAND IS NOT FORMATTED OR SOMETHING LIKE IT AND FORMAT IT. THIS WILL WIPE YOUR DATA FOR EVER!.

These steps will work if:
-Your drive is anywhere remotely close usable.

It wont if:
-The drive is TOO Foobar/kaput.

if you need any other help feel free to email me on [email protected]