Uninstalling Device

I just wanted to quickly confirm a procedure as being safe for the following
situation:

I have an internal 1 TB hard drive that is not being recognized by Windows
Vista (even though it is listed in the Device Manager (as working properly)
and is fully recognized by the bios). I have been informed by the computer
manufacturer that this problem should be fully resolved with the release of
Service Pack 1; unfortunately, I have data that needs to be accessed well
before the end of this month.

I have seen the following simple suggestion on many different forums
(including this one):

1. Within Device Manager, locate the drive, right-click on the drive and
select "Uninstall."
2. Restart Vista

After restart, Vista should recognize the drive.

(As it now stands, Vista doesn't recognize this drive after normal restarts.)

Because we have very sensitive data on this drive (a certain amount of data
that was not been backed up before the drive went missing) I just want to
make absolutely certain that going through this process is not going to do
anything to make this drive nonrecoverable if this procedure is not
successful.

Is this a completely safe procedure? Is this something that is recommended?

Thanks!