Ouch, NOT good!

It may well be possible to recover things without going to overly extreme measures. The clicking sound that you describe may be something truly catastrophic, but surprisingly, often not. I find that I can recover well over half the drives that have the symptoms that you describe. If you have a computer person that you trust, you could have them try recovering the drive with GRC's SpinRite. I do note though that the cost of doing this may well be more than the price of a new drive.