"All of my PCs, some of which are on 24/7, some only on while I'm using them, are set to power down the hard disks after 20 minutes. The accepted answer on the question you linked to says that there is no data showing this is damaging (plus, if there was, why would Microsoft make that a setting?)
Is this drive your primary or a secondary drive? I'm no professional, but it sounds to me like it's going downhill rather fast.
I had success once recovering information by placing the HDD into a USB enclosure, placing the enclosure into a gallon-size ziploc bag, and placing the bag into the freezer (the bag is to help keep condensation from forming). I pulled data off the drive while it was in the freezer, and got a very strange look from the wife as she walked by and saw the usb cord running out of the freezer. My understanding of the process is that the deep cold of the freezer causes a slight contraction of the HDD parts, bringing them back into alignment. Like I said - it worked for me, but no guarantees. My HDD was making a ticking sound and would keep having problems reading files.
Either way, the sooner you get that data, the better."
