Storage

My apologized to the admin as I posted this three times accidentally. Please delete the other posts. Sorry!

You can not live with out from the drive. You can send it to a data recovery company. But it will cost you, easy ones might be $200 or so hard ones will cost alot more. You could try it your self but if you dont know what you are doing or you touch the wrong thing you could make data unrecoverable.

The distance between the platter and the head is too small for the human eye to visually calibrate, with tolerances measured in microns or smaller. Even with a clean room, you're going to knock them out of alignment. The equipment to realign everything properly will cost more than a data recovery service. Next comes a head crash and damaged platters.

I'm sure someone will correct me, but I thought the inside of an HD was either a vacuum or filled with an inert gas. How will you recreate that?

If you care about the data, stop using the drive before you damage it beyond recovery. It may not be the motor, even if it sounds like that.

If you can change the controller card on the drive with an identical one, you stand a better chance of making it work (unless it truly is the motor, which is more rare of an issue). If you remove the platters, it won't work again.

after you have exhausted every other solution. Clicking can be cause by several things.
The first thing to do is to obtain a donor drive. Check on ebay and find the identical drive. The things you need to look for depend on who makes drive. It needs to be made within 2 weeks of your original drive to have the correct specs. The first thing to do is exchange the logic card and try to access the drive. Remember that clicking can also be caused by bad heads so don't run the drive too long. If the interface exchange will work you should know fairly quickly.
If that doesn't fix it then things get a bit more complicated but possible. Make sure that you have plenty of time and patience. The last thing you want to do is hurry and make a mistake and really lose your data.
You'll need a clean environment - a quick Google and some surfing and you'll figure it out. It's not too hard or expensive. You'll need some tools - which ones depends on what you do. Some of the most expensive are a $30 magnet removal tool and a $250 platter removal tool. You'll need teh magnet tool if you need to remove the actuator arm assembly or replace it. You'll need to platter tool if you have multiple platters and plan to move them to the donor drive.
As lond as you find a good working donor then - and your super careful and do the job corrrectly - then you've got a good shot at recovering your data.
If your unsure in any way, I don't recommend proceeding. Ebay has a number of 'hard drive recovery' services and there are plenty of experts out there that have done this before. Keep in mind that you are likely to mess up your first time. Experience is a great teacher and most of us mess up something the first time we do it. If your determined - like me - then be sure to practice several times on dummy drives to make sure that your familiar with all the steps. Do plenty of reasearch. There's a wealth of information out there. MyHardDriveDied.com is one of them. You'll know when you have a complete and solid understanding when you are able to adequately explain the process or teach it to another person. If they are able to follow you and understand the process then you are ready. Don't skip steps!!! There is usually a right way to do something - not just data recovery - if we skip then me make mistakes it's that's simple. You can't affor to make a mistake here!
Well I think that's enough for now. This gives you plenty to chew on. Enjoy!!!
There's nothing like the satisfaction of a job well done...esp data recovery!
Your friend...