Steinman - What's the freezer trick? I think I remember reading about this, but refresh my memory please.
I have done this as a last ditch effort for data recovery for people that don't want to spend real money on data recovery. In theory you can use a hair dryer, or an oven set for no higher than 125F as well.
In the summer it's tricky, though, due to humidity. To avoid problems with condensation, and to use the freezer trick I do the following:
Place desiccant puches in a gallon ziplock freezer bag (if you don't have any such pouches, you can do without them, or you can use dry rice in small socks).
Place the drive,
with the cables attached, inside the freezer bag with the desiccant pouches. Put the drive inside in a position that would allow you to get the cables out without opening the bag very much.
Seal the bag and let it sit for a few hours at room temperature so the rice/desiccant can suck all the moisture out of the drive and the air in the bag.
Place the bag in the freezer and let it cool off for an hour.
Take it out, and get the cable ends out, only opening the bag as much as is necessary, and connect it to a USB drive adaptor. Plug it into the computer and it might work.
If it does, you only have about 15-30 minutes.
If it doesn't put it back in the freezer, sealed, for another hour.
Once it fails again, put it back in the freezer again for an hour or so.
Even though it might not, you should assume that this process destroys the drive and any remaining hope of removing the data. If you think you might want to try data recovery services later, just bag the drive and save it for when you have the resources to pursue that option - don't try this unless you are certain that you are ready to chuck the drive already.
Heating the drive should have a similar effect, and should be less destructive, but can be trickier to control because most ovens don't go that low in temperature, and very few consumer ovens tell you the truth about what temperature they are actually at. But if you run your oven around 100-150F and heat the drive slowly, it should have the same effect, you just don't have to worry about the desiccant.