Windows 10: How can I backup a disk with a live boot of linux?

I'm pretty sure I'd done this maybe 15 years ago but I'd forgotten how to do it. I have an external hard drive which was reading, kinda spotty, when connected, it would drop in and out. So, I took it out of the enclosure. Before that, though my drive fell on the ground, then was ticking. I actually confirmed this was happening before removing the HDD from the enclosure. In either case, the drive will turn on, tick and then go silent. Additionally, it'll freeze Explorer and now not show the drive letter.

My idea was to try booting into a Linux Live USB and attempting to recover the data that way, as I've heard Linux is more forgiving in reading drives.

What do I do to get the ball rolling, in creating a live USB from Windows 10? Furthermore, I'm not really sure what commands to use, if I get lucky and my drive is readable in Linux. Any help or site references would be greatly appreciated.

:)

 

Linux boot disk?

Unfortunately no, I was going to get a new drive as my second plan.

I really dont think its the drive though.

Also I have no experience with linux or any linux distro... is it hard to use? and what is the best distro to use for a live boot disk?

 

Easiest Linux distribution to boot into

Hirens boot disk
Has mini XP live and a linux live edition program
+ lots of recovery Tools

 

Can't safely remove external disk

In reference to the steps of your suggestions:

• The issue is specific to the particular disk and it started after I've used the disk to save the System image backup (created with the Control Panel > File History tool).
• I didn't disable any windows Service. I'm just wondering if there is any to disable.
• Safe boot with networking, or clean boot doesn't resolve the issue.

Thank you.