Any way to magically recover data from failing hard drive?

Recently, I have a hard drive that failed and it has several hundred gig of personal video editing project on it. Of course I was too lazy to back the information up to my NAS.

I know there isn't much of a chance to save the data because the drive seems to be physically broken - it spins up, clicks a few times, and then stops spinning. This just repeats.

I tried punching it a few times, any other ideas?

I've heard real good things about a product called SpinRite. You can buy it at www.grc.com . I know it sounds like the drive is dead, but if the data is that important, it may be worth a shot to try.

Their website has the following quote:
SpinRite is often credited with performing "true miracles" of data recovery.

I've never personally used it, but all the testimonials prove that it is a very well polished product.

There is one last-ditch and definitely not guaranteed approach you could try. Remove the drive, seal it in a poly bag and stick it at the bottom of your deep freeze for at least 24 hours. Then take it out, plug it straight into the machine (don't even bother with the screws) and boot up at once. If it comes up, be ready to copy off everything you can get right then and there, because you're on borrowed time!

Believe it or not, I thought of both the Spinrite and the freezing method.

I will look into spinrite and see what it can do.

Do you know why the freezing method works?

Do you know why the freezing method works?

If you haven't seen those yet. This guy says it worked for him: geeksaresexy.blogspot.com/2006/01/freeze...to-recover-data.html

This one says why it works, but not for newer drives.

www.associatedcontent.com/article/393124..._drive_is_a_bad.html

Any way since your damage seams to be physical. And if your not going to pay for a professional recovery company. Then I'd take the freezer for a last resort.