There have been stories around for ages about saving the data on a dodgy hard disc by freezing the disc and then recovering the data. Google documents a few cases, but has anyone here actually tried it?
I've got an old knackered disc and might just buggaround with it; any hints?

(No 'get a life' or 'do some heffin work' comments please).
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I tried it, didn't work :(

But of course, your question is mute(moot even) as you keep a regular backup anyway M!
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This was something which we have done in the past M, but it was more applicable to the older drives than the more modern ones.

We froze a HDD from a server once, after they had a breakdown, and were able to recover quite a portion of the important data from it - was about 8 years ago though :)

Usually the idea is to freeze it for 24 hours.

Personally, I would be more inclined to swap the 'electrics' for those on a similar drive (same make/model really) and see if the drive is recoverable from here.
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There is also a lot of software out there that forces the drive to be read again and again. With Windows, it will only try reading the sectors a limited number of times and then completely give up. SpinRite, for example, is a fantastic piece of software the tries to rectify corrupt data (assuming the drive spins at all!)

P.S. I have had success of removing the fried circuit board from an older Maxtor drive and replacing it with the exact same model+make. This fixed the problem and in fact, the drive is still working! :)
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Download and burn a copy of Knoppix (http://www.knoppix.org/) onto a CD. Read up on its diagnostic and recovery tools. It is likely to be able to read and copy as much, probably more, data off the drive than other tools if it can't be repaired using the method already suggested by stugster and Comspec.

Oh, and don't forget to click on the English button (flag, half UK, half USA). The site's in German otherwise. Unless you understand it well, of course. :)

<edit: Cor, this is my 200th post. Doesn't feel as if I've been here two minutes. I must be enjoying it. ;) />
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My father has used the technique to great effect in the past... IIRC he actually kept the hard drive sitting in between a couple of freezer blocks (those things you stick in portable cold stores) when he was running it too.

Seemed to work.
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Thanks for all the hints. As I said I'm just buggaround-ing, and all my data is safe. (Kiss of death statements like that).
I'll give it a go..

http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/4693/icecreamlolly2ut9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Just right for a hot day fixing 'puters.
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My father has used the technique to great effect in the past... IIRC he actually kept the hard drive sitting in between a couple of freezer blocks (those things you stick in portable cold stores) when he was running it too.

Seemed to work.

When you freeze it, it can help the solder connections, etc - but this can revert back quite quickly as it heats up. This idea of running it, whilst having ice-packs is good because it will lengthen the 'frozen' time.

Let us know how it goes, would be interested to hear :)
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Slight tangent, but interesting article (http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1257) about freezing DRAM to recover data after the machine has been turned off.
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It really depends on the problem with the drive. If theres a problem with any of the components on the circuit board then freezing wont help. If though its the bearings that are clunking then freeing may help. Very hard to describe in writing so I wont bother trying but theres a lot of things that can go wrong, freezing may help depending on whats wrong with it. I've managed it in the past but only sometimes.
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There's a pretty good "how to" here:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=550870&cid=23386444
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