Serious USB HDD Problem

[Gekko]

Hi all

I have an external Lacie P3 160GB USB2.0 drive which has been working perfectly for six months.
When I switched it on this morning as usual, it made a series of toned beeping noises, followed by a brief grinding noise.
It is then silent for a few seconds, before repeating the pattern.
The drive is no longer recognised by windows, and I can't access it.
It makes the same noise regardless of whether I have the USB cable plugged in or not.
Do you think the drive is dead, and if so is there anything I can do to salvage at least some of the data on it?

Thanks for any help

 

[SHAWN]

Put the drive in the freezer overnight, then try to pull data off of it tomorrow

 

[Gekko]

Thanks for the reply Shawn. Will give that a try.