Here's an update. Again, thanks to all who chimed in. I'm recovering the data as we speak. For $50, File Scavenger saved the day.
PTL!!
---end of executive summary--------read on at your own risk----------
After trying SpinRite, I tried ZAR (Zero Assumption Recovery) and it went all the way through but said unable to proceed. I checked the log file and it contained names of my folders on the drive. That gave me hope.
Today by seemingly random chance (though I personally don't believe in chance) that I came across File Scavenger. I asked a friend who works in IT and he recommended drivesaver.com for "expensive" data recovery, except when he typed the name he had a typo--driversavers.com From that site I came across a couple of different data recovery links and saw File Scavenger had a free demo. Tried it and that did the trick. The demo version only recovered files up to 64k, but that was enough to display the top portions of my JPEG files. Went ahead and bought the program and voila! "They're back...."
I considered this an education b/c when it happened I had no idea what to do. Sure there's $1,000+ options to send out the drive to get data retrieved, but in this case a relatively inexpensive software did the trick. (Which leads me to think maybe there's even cheaper shareware/freeware out there that would do the same?!) After hearing my story, a number of friends and family members immediatedly made backups of their files, even if it meant picking up a couple of new drives.
If there's physical damage to your drive, such as the head crashing or hearing abnormal clicking noise, the solution would be very different. If the disk comes on and still spins, there seems to be software solutions out there.
Still no clue what caused the drive to be corrupted in the first place...
PD