Die Steve Jobs. You too Michael Dell. I am serious...

[caravel]

I did read somewhere a while ago (see here) that placing a dead hard drive in a freezer (in something to protect it from moisture) may allow it to work just long enough for you to extract the data. It won't work on failed heads though, only on dodgy bearings.

I've never tried it myself though, and those cheap DIY computer tricks aren't very reliable, and often conclude in making things worse than they already were.

Sorry about your data loss BTW

You were probably reading about overheating drives such as the old IBM Deskstars there was a massive thread somewhere about those in which that bit of advice became infamous. For other types of failures the freezer method won't help. I've never heard of that method working for dodgy bearings either.