Problems with external drive

[#1]

this what I call cheap http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hard-Drive-Caddy-Cost-Black/dp/B000I2JU6A

[#2]

I have the pc on the floor and the external disk on top of the pc thats why it was only 2 feet should have had the external hd on the floor as well but hindsight is a wonderful thing if we had it....

[#3]

Sorry i am not sure how putting it in a caddy will make it work ?

[#4]

I didnt say it would, but that will tell you if it is the Porche bit or the disk

[#5]

An external hard drive is a standard hard disc inside a caddy.  Now you could take the drive out of the Lacie caddy and put it in a different caddy but surely the better option is to eliminate USB & caddies and temporarily connect the failing hard drive directly to the motherboard?

[#6]

I can confirm that the freezer method can work.
The advice given to me was to put it in the freezer for between 1 and 3 hours. I had a disc (80GB) that failed with clicking and squealing and after freezing for around 2 hours I was able to get some of the data off before it failed again. IIRC I did this twice more before it gave up completely and nothing would help. By then I'd recovered over half the data.