How do I access my HD while running an OS on external drive?

So my MBP crashed the other day and when it boots it goes to Disk Utility X. When I tried to repair my HD, it says it cannot be repaired I should backup as much as possible and then format the HD. I did some forum and Apple discussion search and found a few similar scenarios where backing up with Image or Time Machine isn't a choice. (And of course I am one of the "not so wise" population who did not backup in the past.) One of the solution I found was to install an OS on an external drive and then retrieve files from the new OS. I've installed a new OS but aside from Disk Utility I cannot see my original HD. So here's my question:
How do I access my original HD when I'm running an OS installed on my External Drive? I've partitioned the ED to 2 portions. 1 is MAC journaled(?) GUID in order to install OS, the other is MS-FAT so I have easy access to files.
PS. One solution I read was to switch the hard drive from the ED with the HD on the MacBook and then retrieve it that way but I don't have access to 2 MacBooks. Plus I'm having the hardest time just trying to open my ED's enclosure...
I appreciate your time and help! TRULY!!!!
Thank you so so much!!!!

So I tried to access it with Terminal and learned how to use command to find HDDs to gain access. Here's what I'm encountering:
I was able find the HD with "diskutil list" command but it seems to me that my HD was not mounted because when I did "ls /volumes" and "df -h" it did not show up. When I tried to mount the HD with "diskutil mount /dev/disk0s2" The response I got was "Volume on disk0s2 failed to mount".
Does that mean my HD is fried??
Thanks again!!!

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