Did this start happening after your system was normal for a period of time?
Do you have another computer you could try it in?
You could try the Live CD, but you computer may not boot with the bad drive installed.
If all else fails, you might thing about getting an external enclosure and put the drive in that. Perhaps if you plug it in after boot, it might be recognized.
You might do some research on putting the drive in cold storage (like a freezer) for a while before you try to boot it. I have not done this, but perhaps your research will help.