Originally Posted by
nd_eric_77
When I boot up the PC, all I hear is a periodic (every 5 secs or so) faint "click" sound from the hdd
If you're resigned to losing the data anyway, try putting the drive in a freezer overnight (in a plastic freezer bag), and then try it again. It may recover for long enough to copy your important data. It's not a permanent fix however.
Cheers,
Rick