How do I retrieve files from faulty Hard Drive?

My Hard Drive failed and on advice I bought a new External Hard Drive and installed OSX 10.5.1 from there.
However, my faulty Macintosh HD still shows up on my Desktop and I can open it and see files there named Applications, Library, System, Users, System Folder, User Guides and Information, Home, Lost + Found, Net.
However, when I open, for instance, Applications, in there I can find my copy of CorelDraw which was installed on my Macintosh HD but which is not installed on my External HD, and I can open and operate CorelDraw from there, but my previously written documents are not in there.
The same applies to my copy of MS Office for Mac 2008 - I can open and operate the program from my Macintosh HD but my previously written documents are not there.
Can I retrieve my old work from my Macintosh HD and how do I attempt that?
I don't want to pay anyone to do it but I would like to try and do it myself.

None of my previous work is visible in Documents or anywhere else - the cupboard is bare - just as if I had never done anything.
Yet both CorelDraw and MS Office for Mac 2008 both work just fine when I access them from the faulty macintosh HD.
My documents are probably there somewhere but I don't know where to look for them.
Also, is there any way of retrieving my old web page bookmarks somehow?

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Message was edited by: AppleMan1958

How do I retrieve files from faulty Hard Drive?

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