[Techtalk] failed hard drive recovery

[chris]

yesterday morning my primary hard drive seems to  have failed - the bios
on 2 computers is unable to see it and it acquired the click of death
last time I tried to access it.

Unfortunately, there is some data on it that I really need (I've already
berated myself for skipping a backup, so no need to go there). 

In any case, can anyone point me in the direction of tools or articles I
can read about recovering data from a hard drive that the bios doesn't
recognize? The bios doesn't see it, Knoppix doesn't see it, so I haven't
been able to run any software-based diagnostics.

So far googling says my best bets appear to be to freeze it, hit it, or
drop it in an attempt to realign the geometry. Does anyone here have any
other suggestions or caveats before I commence to abusing the drive?

thanks!
chris