koala

5 years is about the average life expectancy for a hard drive. I replace mine every 2-3 years.

If the freezer method doesn't give you long enough to backup the contents, you could take it to a recovery specialist who will charge $hundreds or $thousands, depending on how tough the job is. At this stage, when you're hearing the 'click of death', even the top recovery software like GetDataBack will have trouble getting anything off the drive.

I wouldn't recommend trying to fix the drive yourself. As soon as you open the hard drive casing and expose the internal parts to air, it becomes contaminated and will no longer work.

Google 'freezer hard drive recover' to see reports of this method being used. It's not guaranteed to work, but is always worth trying as a last resort.