Well know my answer by tomorrow. I emailed the seller and asked if it was even worth a shot. I'll let you all know how it went and, thanks for all your help, Andy. :)

circuits smoke and stink, clicks and clunks are moving parts.

Thanks for the insite......

Is the churp a moving part as well?

It has to be if you think about it.... what on a circuit board would make sounds at all? other than maybe a one time pop from a cap bursting.

If anything is making physical contact with the platters inside the drive (which is what it sounds like is happening from your description) then some or all of your data may be unrecoverable even if you did manage to transplant the platters to another drive.

But I'm just making edumacated guess's:o

I disagree, Candy.

Its an electronic churp like a PC board does with bad memory, ect. But your probably right, as far as getting the data back, im screwed. Thanks all anyways.

I've taken drives apart (removed the cover) and watched the operation of a "good" (but useless) 20gb drive.

It does make noises without it being screwed up.

The chirping noise isn't from the armature or the head but from some of the electronics inside the drive. Exactly where or what I honestly don't know.

I have photos.... here's two of a running drive (this is an 80gb with a bad controller). There were chirpy sounds but it wasn't form the head banging on the platter.

Thanks for the help, Andy. :D

Well obviously a speaker or piezo on the pcb will make noise but I didn't feel it was necessary to mention that.

In anycase, Im screwed:(

Well, I find myself in your position.

I have a 160GB drive with very valuable data on it. The drive died the other night.

After the server is restored by the vendor, I'm going to attempt one of these data recovery projects with real data.

But I want to make sure we can get our system up and running first, on the off chance that I need to send this drive off for professional recovery services.

Tom linked me to a company that will do a 2 day turn around, 160gb drive with about 120gb of data, for a flat fee of $2500.

The make zero guarantee that they'll get anything off the drive, let alone a bootable image.