Circle of Confusion

My Microdrive, loaded with some very nice pictues I took in the S.F. Bay Area over the Thanksgiving holiday, is dead. I tried every recovery program I can find and none can do anything. What the drive does now is it powers up when plug-in to the USB port; it then sings high pitch noise (not constant tone but up and down in frequency a little, staying in the high freqency) for several minutes and then the sound changes into ticking like a clock. No cameras or computers can format it. So it just junk now.

I have a few questions:

1. Does it have a lifetime warranty?

Answer: From Hitachi Microdrive Products – 1 year ( 2 years for Europe)

But mind was a IBM product. Long before Hitachi bought the businese from IBM. What's the warranty back then?

Answer: 1 yr.

So my Microdrive is definitely junk now.