Maxtor HD Error: plays musical tone and a scratch noise

I'm using a USB external hard drive case with my Maxtor Drive. It's a 250GB; Model: 6L250R0

I have 2 external cases, each with a different hard drive. The 250gb maxtor wouldn't even be detected by the computer so I put the Maxtor into the other case. Same thing happens.

Is this hard drive completely broken? Can I still recover the files in there? There are important files in there to me that money can't replace (memories like pictures and stuff).

Here is a video I recorded of it, really short. You can hear the sounds that i'm hearing. I just uploaded it today so I'm not sure if Youtube is allowing the public to see it until they reviewed it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML6kWeWRRlU

 

No youtube..

high pitched whine and click-click-click-click-click = dead drive. Dead as in.. bin it. You could swap the platters inside with another working drive, but you will end up with 2 dead drives very soon after you get any remaining data off. Data recovery companies do this.. which is why it costs hundreds of $$$ to get data from a dead hdd.

 

okay, my youtube video is online now. Before, it wouldn't show because it was still being reviewed. Now it's okay I hope.

I actually see a bunch of other youtube videos exactly like my problem. The people that posted comments on those said that it's a common problem in maxtor hard drives where the disks won't spin and that's why it makes that musical tone and scratch noise.

They said there's no way to fix it yourself and if you're willing to dish out hundreds of dollars, certain places can retrieve the data for you. They have to replace the platters or something? and that's why it costs so much.

thanks guys for the replies though.