No can do :-(

Well, the guys from Gillware.com called me today to tell me that my hard drive is physically damaged and needs cleanroom work. Apparently this is where they scrub in to an operating-room-like environment where there is no dust or other particles that can damage the electronics inside the drive. This costs $300 more, on top of the $379, but only if they can get data off. (Still MUCH more reasonable than other companies' cleanroom/data recovery fees).

Not too long after that I got another call, this time saying that the parts for my particular drive (Western Digital 200GB) aren't going to be obtainable for the foreseeable future, and that they aren't going to able to help with the drive at all. They're going to send it back without charge.

So that's the end of that. At least it seems like they're an honest company that isn't out to cheat their customers by charging them for things they don't need. In fact they said I might want to try other companies, who have been around longer and so might have the parts they need already in their inventory, and the guy gave me the name of Eco Data Recovery to try. I looked at Eco's website and they charge a flat fee too, though they list $775 for a 40GB hard drive. Would probably be lots more for a larger drive. I requested a quote for fun, though I really doubt I'm going to be trying any other companies.

I also asked the guy at Gillware what he thought about different brands of hard drives. He said that they see a lot of Western Digital and Maxtor drives there, and not very many Seagate drives. Something to be aware of, I guess ... I'm probably going to replace my current WD 300GB drive with a Seagate one if I can find one for a good price. Then I can sell the WD drive on eBay or something like that ...

As for the data on the dead drive ... Guess I'll have to try to piece it together from whatever I've got lying around on my old drives. At least I saved $679!!