disk is fried
I had a 3.5 inch that seemed "fried." It wouldn't spin or make any of the sounds associated with starting up. I replaced the controller card that is attached to the hard drive, and it spun right up. That drive is running fine, and has been for about six months since I replaced the card. I had another drive (exact same model) to cannibalize, otherwise the card would have been $20-$40.
From the looks of the 2.5" drive in my hand, the card is removable without entering the disk area. Eight little screws.
If your drive rattles, then the head is probably off its pivot. I've never had any success in recovery from that, although I think it is possible, in principle, at substantial cost.
Cam be installed on a Flash Drive which would allow saving stuff and not having to reconfigure at every boot.Assuming you have usb2 on the laptop.