It is most likely that a bad or failing area of the disk has been reached.
The next stage depends on how important the data is.
If important the drive should be sent to a specialist repairer who may change the heads, firmware etc. Due to costs, this may not be a viable option for a non critical recovery.
Continued reading of the drive can cause damage or total failure.
If not important, the approach I take is to skip the failed area and build up an image in increments. Often starting near the end of the drive and working backwards. This approach will often get a high percentage of data but there are dangers of disk damage.
A good recovery program will cope with missing areas of a disk image, as long as each recovered sector is in the correct location.
Personally I would avoid programs that try and repair the sectors. Others may suggest otherwise.
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