[newbe]

I am attempting to recover the data from an old *Compaq Presario desktop 20 Gig Western Digital hard drive *with* Win XP Pro *installed on it.Unfortunately, I did the classic mistake of not backing this drive up and I'm having a hard time as a...

I am attempting to recover the data from an old Compaq Presario desktop 20 Gig Western Digital hard drive with Win XP Pro installed on it.Unfortunately, I did the classic mistake of not backing this drive up and I'm having a hard time as a result. The drive began the infamous clicking sound and rendered the computer it was installed on inoperable. I have since connected it as a slave on another old Intel Celeron 1.1Ghz Compaq Presario running XP Pro in order to try and work on it. Initially the drive would click away and I could not access it no matter what I tried.

I then read about the "freezer" trick and connecting the drive upside down instead of mounted in its normal position. After sealing the drive in a Ziplock bag and letting it freeze for a few hours I reconnected the drive. The drive stopped clicking and lo and behold it was visible on Windows Explorer as well as Device and System managers! I then frantically attempted to copy as many files as I could but my "miracle" slot of time lasted for only about seven minutes, then the clicking began and I was back to having an inaccessible hard drive. I was only able to recover a small portion of the data I am trying to save.

The interesting thing is that I have since used the freezer method a few more times and the hard drive no longer clicks at all. It seems to spin and whir almost normally and is recognized by the Windows XP System Device manager, where it is reported as functioning "normally", yet I can not access the drive from the Disk Manager Tool or Windows Explorer, or from a software program called Find & Mount in order to give it a drive letter. I am now officially stumped. Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated....HELP.. Thanks.