If you have ever imaged a hard drive, you know they can get hot. If you can keep the drive cooler, you may be able to get more information off of the drive. Here is a device that I saw in Fry's, but never got because it was a little expensive. Well I saw one in a local thrift store for 8 bucks-so I broke down and bought one.
http://shop3.frys.com/product/4730919
This really helps keeping a notebook drive cooler while imaging. Just to be safe, I md5 hashed a drive, then left it on the cooler for twenty four hours, then hashed it again. There was no change. I have left drives on it for days with no real problems.
Worth checking out.
