Help! Hard Drive Crash

[Expendable]

I have some friends that didn't backup their data at all...well...their hard drive just crashed...when I try to boot it up it sounds like it is fine for a second...then it sounds like it changes RPMS...then it clacks once followed by three clacks together...it happens fast and it won't show up in the BIOS...I can tell it's still spinning, but it's silent and won't do anything...
Unless someone is pretty sure they know of something I can do it looks like it'll need to be sent to a data recovery place...does anyone know of a good place that's not too expensive? I'm hoping to get it done for $600 or less...

 

[Triplex]

Just went thru this. If the physical platters are okay you are looking on the the low end that any disk recovery company quotes. Several had estimate fee's, a couple gave free estimates. Quality and expertise is what your looking for not lowball price. Make sure they have been in buisness awhile and have complete clean room facilities. I have had a total of three drives recovered for the company I work for.
1. was around 2500. Defective platters
2. was around 800 and had bad electronics
3. still working and had estimates from 600 to 1750. This was guessing from the charcteristics of the drive problems over the phone, nothing written in stone.

Good Luck

Forgot the actual third drive which had bad heads and ran about 1200 dollars

 

[oldman420]

man thats a lot to have to pay for not backing up