I posted a thread in Off-Topic, but none recommended that I post a thread here for you technical-minded folks.

So, I dropped my 500 GB external hard drive where I store all my music, while it was plugged in and I'm pretty sure music was playing off it at the time (I'm not positive, but it's possible). Now it just clicks when I plug it into my Windows laptop.

What I heard when I picked up the drive off the floor was a slow clicking noise like something was stuck. I turned the drive off, unplugged the power and eSATA cables. I open the case to make sure nothing had come loose, but everything in the enclosure looked fine. I plugged it back in, this time connected through USB. My computer recognized that a USB drive had been plugged in, I heard a couple clicks from the drive, could feel the drive spinning when I touched the case, and once in awhile it would make that noise old HDDs make when they're trying to read data. My laptop would not pick up the drive.

I have the drive in the freezer right now. I don't know what else to do. Google is pretty much useless for this shit these days, every link is to some hard drive recovery service masquerading as a "repair guide". Can anyone give me some clear advice on what my options are? Even if it's something risky to try. At this point, I don't have $1,000 for a data recovery service, so I'll take my chances.