that does suck...definitely see what maxtor can do....did you get a warranty with it other than what is provided? i say that because if there was a power surge and the drive was damaged, you might be shit outta luck on the factory warranty. i know companies like dell don't warranty against a power surge, it's considered external damage, unless you purchase a special warranty.
in any case...worse comes to worst you can always try to remove the drive from the enclosure yourself and slave it up to your home pc to pull the data off....i'd be willing to bet the drive itself is still intact. unless you've been travelling with it and it's been handled roughly.
some of those desktop external harddrives that aren't meant to be moved around can actually be very sensitive to any kind of shock and might get damaged if you travel with it.
sorry for your troubles but at least you've got dat backups!