I have had success in the past simply removing the cover, plugging in the drive, and when powing the computer on, spinning the platters by hand to give them a jump start. Once they started to spin, they kept on doing so. I then copied everything off immediately to a new drive and all was well. Keep in mind, this was important data and there was NO other option. If nothing else, try spinning them by hand before you try swapping platters. Just take care not to touch the platters themselves. Only touch the spindle holding them in place. Also, be prepared for the fact that there may be nothing you can do to save your data. In my case, when I powered the drive on with it in my hand, I could feel the drive shudder, but not spin up, so I had a pretty good feeling that a jump start would do the trick.