Damn Maxtor!
I've also had trouble with them. Hope you can sort your system out and retrieve some of those photos.
I've heard of some dramatic drive 'treatments' in order to get them working again- freezing, slapping, etc. They might work for long enough to get some stuff off of.

My next machine will definately be at least RAID 1 (maybe raid 0-1 or 1-0). Drives have gotten bigger and cheaper over the years, but I hate to trust them.