Failing 500GB WD5000AAKB

[spacefish]

As so often happens, out of the blue my external HD failed on me. I backed up a file to it then when I went to access it the next morning there was nothing happening.

First off, I'm on a Mac.

1) The drive had 2 partitions and neither would mount although the HD is seen by Disk Utility. There were no bad noises at this point.
2) I used Data Rescue and did a deep scan, most of my files still existed but were scattered everywhere - it was like a bomb had gone off in there!

Using the recovery option of Data Rescue I selected only the most (really) important items but none of the recovered data is readable - txt, pics, zip, dmg files are there, but nothing opens. This is what a .html file looks like:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5052475/float.html

3) After that was complete, the drive started making faint but repetitive click noises. I turned it off and don't want to touch it again unless I've got a clear plan if I'm going to do the software route - or just leave it until some time in the future when I might be in the position to have a professional do what needs to be done.
4) The correct name for the drive is shown in both Disk Utility and Data Rescue.
5) If it's relevant, I use FW rather than USB.


I'm trying to be optimistic that maybe there is enough life in it for me to still do something. One plan of attack I had in mind was to clone/image to a new HD then attempt repair and recovery of data if that was an option. Could it be? While I'd prefer to work within Mac for this, putting OS aside what tools would people highly recommend for the job?

Any file I can open (html, txt) appears as garbage like the html file posted above - why would this be?

Any help + info would be much appreciated!

[Zero Alpha]

I turned it off and don't want to touch it again

Wise move as your first attempts lead to the deterioration of this drive.

If you want your data back it is a good time for pro intervention.

[drc]

You made it worse with your scan. With known bad drives its image or nothing. If its too far gone for you to image now you should send it off.

[fzabkar]

External enclosures are hotboxes. If you want to try cloning your drive, do it with the cover off, and with a fan blowing on it.

As for your file, it looks like a fragment from an incompressible file such as a JPEG or a ZIP. If you use Winzip to compress it, the compression factor is 0%.