Re: If cycling power doesn't work...
"Regularly used that same trick to unpark the heads on an external 20(?)MB HDD "
Picking it up and a jerky twist on the platter axle axis usually achieved the same result without risking unseating the heads from their carriers (which makes for an interesting sound as they bounce off the spinning platters on their wire tethers)
The real solution to drives which had sticktion problems (other than replacing them) was to never turn them off.