Not sure if "gone down" is the exact phrase I would have used, but that aside...
When you say gone down what do you mean??? drive recovery software is for recovering files that have been deleted, not for getting data off a faulty hard drive, to do that is far far more complicated and normally requires very specialist equipment!
Also to use any drive recovery software you will need another, working, computer that you can either put the drive into or attach using an external hard drive caddy. if you have a facility to do this then do it and see if you can read the drive and copy the pictures off.