More info. 'we need to change and calibrate the heads, repair the FW. The hardest part are the platters which are damaged. (All this work need to be done before we can recover 1 single file.) Only advanced data recovery companies can deal with scratches and their prices for these kinds of problems start at $2000.'

Does that sound legit to the gurus out there?

Sounds about right, data recovery isn't cheap.

it's been decades since I've heard of any 'repairable' hard drives - they are sealed throw-away commodities. Attempts to recover data from drives are software tricks and hacks. I've heard of places charging up to a few hundred dollars for this . . . again not assuming business data but household data where folks are happy with a % of data recovery. Have your friend call a few more places - should be a few within driving distance. I can give a few in Madison WI area.

Is the drive making any sound? If so, it's probably time for the pros to look at it:


http://www.popularmechanics.com/...hard-drive-recovery/

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"The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do."

I recently had a similar issue after I dropped our laptop. I took it to a local place, and they were unable to get anything off it. They recommended Gilware out of Madison, WI so I sent the harddrive to them. They evaluated it and sent me a list of recoverable files before requiring any payment. I ended up spending about $500 to get about 50% of the files back. They could have recovered more for about double the price, but the files I was concerned with (family pictures) were almost completely recovered.

He says he can hear it spinning but neither of his computer can see it. He lives in San Jose so I thought data recovery services are a dime a dozen and prices should be reasonable. He's going to take it to a couple of other places and get a quote.