Method 2 for hard disk data recovery

Here are some drive recovery tricks that have worked for me, in the order that I do them. Try booting the drive and copying the data off after every step. Hold the drive upside down, making gravity change the head geometry ever so slightly. Vertical is also another option. Slightly rap the drive with your knuckle, (but nowhere near hard enough to damage the drive). Try the drive in another machine, (slight drive voltage change assumed to be the miracle worker here). Rap the drive just SLIGHTLY harder than you did above in 2. Freeze the hard drive in the freezer for two hours, and place in a plastic zip lock bag to prevent condensation from forming on the drive when you plug it back into the system, After the drive warms up to room temperature or better, rap it even harder with your knuckle this time. Repeat all of above steps on next day, as sometimes I've gotten data off drive simply by trying again.

If Drive is not Spinning.

If the drive is spinning and you are experiencing these kinds of errors, my experience has been that you are out of luck. If the drive is not spinning, I have been able to remove it from the computer and 'spin' the drive on a flat smooth surface (much like spin the bottle). This will usually free the drive and when placed back in the machine, it will boot. You should immediately back up you data after a successful boot, because the problem will return. The next 'fix' was actually given to me by a Compaq technician several years ago. I had a drive that would not spin and he told me to put the drive in a plastic bag in the freezer overnight and then install back in the computer. Believe it or not, the drive booted. I have only tried this the one time.