External hard drive clicking - any suggestions?

Kind of a weird situation here. My dad had an external hard drive (Maxtor Personal Storage 3200 250GB) that worked with his old computer, but when he got a new computer (XP machine) it didn't work anymore. He said it made a clicking sound "like a horse galloping" and stopped using it. He did not attempt to get any warranty service on it. At this point, I think it's about two years old. Recently, I offered to find out if it could be repaired/replaced. I plugged it into my computer (Vista machine) to see what the problem was and it worked fine, and I was able to access all the data. (Should have pulled it off at that time - oops! ) We ordered a "Y" cable to try to provide it with more power on his computer, and tried it again on his. Still didn't work. Now he's bought a new drive altogether, and asked me to transfer the data from the old drive. Plugged it in tonight, and now I get the galloping horse sound as well! It doesn't show up in My Computer at all, but it was recognized in Device Manager earlier tonight...not anymore. I checked Maxtor's warranty checker and it appears it's past warranty. I emailed them but still waiting on a reply. Does anyone have any experience with anything like this or know what is causing the clicking? At this point my main priority is just to get the data off the drive, IF it's even salvageable. Hopefully without having to take the drive out of the case and attempt to put it in the tower as a secondary drive. Thanks for the help!

The "Galoping Horse" sound is normaly the drive trying to start but not being supplied with enough power, try running it from an external PSU.

The only thing I can think is to check the PSU is working, if it is the only other possability is a faulty drive.

The power supply is definitely working. Regarding getting the data off: If I can take the drive out of its plastic case, can it be installed into a computer (just temporarily) and accessed that way or is it really done?

IT HAPPEDN TO MINE WHEN I JUST TRIED TO USE IT ON A DIF COMPUTER AND IT INSTALLED A DRIVE ON MY EXTERNAL HARDRIVE. IT IS FIXABLE. MY FRIEND IS GOING TO OPEN IT UP AND WORK ON IT FOR ME TO GET THE POWER WORKING CORRECTLY,. DONT LISTEN TO THAT GUY THAT DOESNT MEAN ITS DEAD. ITS ONLY DEAD WHEN ITS BURNED OUT. THE LIGHT STILL GOES ON AND EVERTHHNIG SO ITS NOT DEAD. ITS JUST NOT GETTIN ENOUGH POWER THATS ALL CAUSE SOMETHING OVER POWERED IT LIKE A DRIVER LIKE MY DID. I KEEP U POSTED WHEN MY EXTERNAL GETS FIXED. I ALREADY HAD THIS PROB AND HE FIXED IT. TRY DOIN WHAT DUDE SAID AND FIND A DIF PPOWER SOURCE TO UR DRIVE. THEIR A WAY TO POWER IT UP THRU USB AND LOAD IT THRU TWO FEMALES AND ONE MALE. I WOULD TRY THAT FOR NOW AND IF THAT DONT WORK THEN HAVE A FRIEND OR SOEOEN U KNOW OPEN IT UP AND TRY TO FIND OUT THE PROBLEM CUASE IT COULD BE A WIRE OR HE MIGHT HAVE TO TAKE OUT THE DRIVE AND TOTALLY TAKE IT OUT AND PLUG IT INTO DIF WIRES.

Hey Nick - How do I change it to a different power start up method? Karen