Data Recovery Techniques For Dead Zip Disks?

Lkmyst writes "Recently I had a Zip 250 disk die on me after the obvious channels were checked and found to be too expensive for a college student at $200US + I looked to see if there was perhaps another method I could use. A *nix dd looks like it might work but I thought I would ask slashdot to see if anyone out there has had luck with zip disks the drive no longer recognizes."