data recovery issue (bootcamp involved?)

hi. i replaced my old macbook pro (15" mid-2009) with a newer one (13" late-2011) earlier this year. i did have a cloud backup of the drive in the old mbp, and thus i have most of the data from it. however, it died on me in between backups and i need to retrieve the data created in the interim (probably about 2 dozen or so various microsoft office files).

i took out the drive and put it in a usb enclosure to try to get the files off, but ran into a hitch - the drive was partitioned with bootcamp, and when i plug it into my new mbp, it only recognizes the windows partition. i'm able to move files off the windows partition fine, but the files i really need are on the osx partition.

i've tried data rescue 3, which does recognize the osx partition. however, it gives me drive failure warnings when i try to scan or clone the partition, and never completes the process. it doesn't do this with the windows partition. is there anything else i can do? i called apple tech support and their only suggestion was to try a firewire hdd enclosure instead of a usb enclosure. don't know how that would help really...

i really do need access to those files if at all possible. any suggestions?