Well I thought I'd jump on the band wagon and tell my story. I tripped on my USB cable as well and it thumped the ground from bout 2ft. It made all the noises described as above so I banged it and thumped it as everyone suggested. But no luck, and as I don't need a melodic lump of metal I decided to crack it open in a final gasp, I expected to find a switch that was set to broken, and all I needed to do was switch it to fixed.. But alas no luck..
Basically the bearing had ceased, I couldn't do anything to get it spinning so I took the platters out and transfered to a new drive, but I was well out of my depth by then.
But I learnt a few things.
1. Don't open your drive unless you really know what to do once you open it. As in there an't much you can do without disk drive knowledge.
2. DONT BUY ANOTHER MAXTOR DRIVE.