Question : Problem: Recovering a failed hard disk

Question.......I have a 20 gig Quantum Fireball Plus SA hard disk that has failed. I have it plugged into an IDE USB enclosure and have it connected to my computer. The hard disk shows up in Device Manager but I don't see it in Explorer. Also, the LED shows up as amber. I do hear the hard drive spinning though. Obviously I'm trying to avoid the cost of sending it out to a data recovery house......are there any other ways that I may not be thinking of that I can use to recover the contents of this hard disk? Before you mention it, I already know about backing up my stuff. This wasn't my hard drive, it was someone else's.

Answer : Problem: Recovering a failed hard disk

"stick the drive in the freezer for a few minutes" - I heard that was one way of removing pin codes on car radios  - that does not work either :-)
if you are about to trash it then as a last resort a sharp tap on the central spindle (actually quite hard) while it it spinning - as the head may be actualy stuck (you would hear clicking noises as well)

did you make sure the drive was wired in correctly in the enclosure?.