It's been sounding like a dead fan bearing in the rack for a while, there's really old machines in there. Turns out no! The drive did the screeching. I was stunned for a second when the noise stopped upon its removal.
Platter smoke. Don't breathe this!
That's actually good news compared to whatever the fuck happened to OP's drive. You might be able to swap the controller board and get it working again if you need the data off it or something.