I second what James wrote, and I'd add one more thing that I normally do when recovering data, although not so simple for the unexperienced:
I throw the drive into a Linux box (with SCSI, as an A3000 uses SCSI by default), and do a simple:
dd if=/dev/sda of=/tmp/mybackupfile bs=512
Assuming the HDD is the first SCSI drive (sda), it will dump the entire hard drive partition to a file, which can then be searched for by strings or other software for extracting textual data, or if one is expert enough to reconstruct non-fragmented files by looking at the data.
In either case, it can also be used to "restore" the drive (with the opposite command, CAREFUL: dd if=/tmp/mybackupfile bs=512 of=/dev/sda) in order to try to salvage the data multiple times until you succeed. So basically, if you try to salvage it and it fails, just go back to the Linux box, restore the drive, and try salvaging again.
Also keep in mind, Linux can mount Amiga FS disks, so you can try and see what you can recover that way.
Obviously you're a Windows geek, "two words combined that don't make sense" (Megadeth says so, not I), so you might not have Linux around, in which case you could try a Knoppix CD, which is a bootable Linux, so you won't need to install. Of course there might also be software that does the same thing in Windows, but your mileage may vary, even though the technique would be the same.
All in all, I also recommend you find someone local to help out. Recovery of sensitive data, and especially in a "foreign" environment isn't something I'd attempt if I was a professional or serious about my results.
Cheers and good luck!
One last thing: you or someone knowledgable might want to check out them batteries inside the Amigas, because if they're not used regularly, they will fail and will leak battery acid on the motherboards, making both machines instant door-stops, thus nullifying all your backup/restore efforts. These machines are 15+ years old...
