PSA: check your old Zip drive disks before you trust them with tax files

I keep a stack of Iomega Zip disks from the late 90s with scanned tax returns and old family photos on them, and my plan was always to move the files to a modern drive eventually. Eventually finally caught up with me about two weeks ago when I needed a 1998 return for a refinance, so I dug out the external Zip 100 drive I have had since college in Seattle. Plugged it into my Windows 7 tower, installed the driver from a CD-R, and the drive made a click, click, grrr sound that I still hear in my sleep. Disk one gave me a read error. Disk two worked for three folders and then froze the whole machine. I tried the freezer trick people swear by, the reseating trick, and a USB adapter, and the job ate eleven days of evenings after work. In the end I got maybe 60 percent of the files off, and I paid a data recovery shop in Portland $200 to pull the rest. If you have old removable media in a closet, test it now, not the day you actually need it. What is your go to method for reading dead Zip or Jaz disks without sending them to a lab?