Freeze it
Drop it
Hit it

I have over the years done all 3 to no avail ,if the drive is dead its dead ,and the only way i know of to retrieve files is to have a company that specializes in that stuff take the platters out and retrieve the data

Yes, but I think he is trying to avoid taking the HDD to a recovery company. They charge way to much to recover data, of course if that data is very important and can't be recreated then that would be a solution, but to me I wouldn't bother even taking it.

the problem with the freezer idea is that drives and the files you want to save are to big ,the drive will be hot again in no time ,maybe ok if there is just one file you really need .