Yes you can. However, the contents of the hard drive are encrypted using a code unique to your PlayStation 3. As a result, you will not be able to read any information from the hard drive. The otheros partition of the drive is not encrypted but will not be readable on a PC either. If you wish to backup your PS3 data, you must use the Backup Utility built into the PlayStation 3.
You can connect your PS3 Hard Drive to your PC using a 2.5" SATA to USB/Firewire caddy (pictured above), which cost between $8 to $20.