Need help with dead laptop hard drive?

Sony Vaio laptop hard drive died today - first kept continuously asking safe mode/last good config/reboot normally - would not get out of the loop.

Then my husband ran Windows XP utility, tried checkdisk, computer started making grinding noises - he continued for a while, but it ''hung up'' - now cannot be recognized, not even by BIOS. Looks like ''level three'' recovery is $1500 -- ANYTHING else I can try? We'll get a new HD or computer back from Circuit City protection plan, but am so frustrated about losing ''all my stuff.''

Need help with dead laptop hard drive?internet

Unfortunately, it sounds like your data is gone. Grinding noises don't always mean something really bad, but they usually do. Often, a damaged head is scraping the platter, where your information used to be stored. It might have been an easy recovery at one point, but it's not anymore. This isn't a do-it-yourself thing anymore. The more you try to do, the worse it will get, and your odds of getting anything get slimmer and slimmer. There is lots of software available, but software can't fix a broken part, and is totally useless with a drive that isn't recognized in the BIOS anymore.

If you are interested, I know of a company that does flat $450 data recoveries, even if it requires parts and cleanroom time, and there is no charge if nothing can be recovered.