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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.

I actually did the same thing with my notebook drive and it worked. But I found that as the drive heated up, it would freeze again. Got to be pretty painful, but I just repeated the process to get the data.

Since I had to do this a few times, I learned that a good "wack" on a hard surface, just as the drive was trying to power up worked too. I've heard this from many people as well.

However, what I learned was that if I waited to plug in the drive just as the computer was looking for it (during bootup) rather than have it plugged in prior, the PC would detect it without me giving it a good wack. The initial spinning of the platters manually may have helped loosen the bearing (which was my problem I think).

When you open the cover, the "axel" of the thing will most lkely have a star shapped slot on it. Have a screw driver of that type handy and hold your breath during the whole process. It'll encourage you to hurry up!

Good luck.