Resurrecting a HDD

[7H4_D00D3]

My uncle has a pavillion (I think its a 6800,dont ask the number) as his workstation, but a few days ago his HDD "died", I don't know exactly the details, but he needs to get it back to work ASAP, so he's trying to run file scavenger, but, OBVIOUSLY, he can't cuzz his HDD is just a piece of metal right now, my question is: is it possible to boot an OS form an external drive? I never tried it and I have never heard of it, so, that's why I ask

What other ways are to attempt to ix the problem?

 

[the_guru]

My uncle has a pavillion (I think its a 6800,dont ask the number) as his workstation, but a few days ago his HDD "died", I don't know exactly the details, but he needs to get it back to work ASAP, so he's trying to run file scavenger, but, OBVIOUSLY, he can't cuzz his HDD is just a piece of metal right now, my question is: is it possible to boot an OS form an external drive? I never tried it and I have never heard of it, so, that's why I ask

What other ways are to attempt to ix the problem?

Put the harddrive in another working computer and run getdataback or similar program.