You can try it.

If the disks wont spin at all they're shagged. There are ways around this but only in hardware.
If they run, stick em in another pc and copy across what you want.

I use repair software called 'Spinrite' which is about the best you can get in 'software' but theres only so much you can do.
(you have to pay for spinrite though...)

Another option, download something called the 'Ultimate Boot CD', or similar, boot from this and it gives you a basic windows that lets you run defrag, scandisk and anti-virus checks.