Hard drive recovery(level 2?)

[1bd4t6h]

Greetings everyone,
recently my sister dropped her laptop and did some internal damage. We went to Bestbuy because we have a warranty and asked them to see what was wrong. They told us that it was a hard drive failure and that They would send it out for $150. I was assuming that if I decided to actually open up the Laptop and check out everything it would void the warranty and I'm not comfortable with opening up a laptop. To make a long story short they checked everything out and let us know that it was a "Data Recovery Level 2" process. Should I call back and ask specific questions that would help me find out of I could do this on my own with a software tool? Something such as a boot CD?

[soybean]

Is the goal here to recover files from that failed hard drive?  If not, then you're simply looking at replacement of the hard drive and installation of Windows. 

They would send it out for $150.

What does that mean?  Send out to who, you, the manufacturer, or what?  Is the $150 quote for replacing the hard drive or what?

Does you have a Recovery CD for this computer? 

[1bd4t6h]

They have replaced the Hard Drive free of charge because it was under warranty but what we need is the data off of the old hard drive.They said the $150 was for a recovery fee and no we don't have the recovery CD. However for about $20 I can get another one sent to me.

[patio]

All you need is one of these...

                         

This will allow you to hook up that laptop drive to a desktop machine using a normal IDE ribbon cable...
From there you should be able to copy/move and burn the data to a CD/DVD.

A Recovery CD will wipe whatever info is on there so you don't want to use that method.

[soybean]

OK, if you were asking whether you might be able to recover deleted files from a functional hard drive, that would be one thing.  But, recovery from a damaged drive is another thing, and it's going to require some special tools and techniques.  So, I think the answer is this is definitely not a potential do-it-yourself project.

Regarding the Recovery CD, getting one would be a good idea, in my opinion.  Was Best Buy going to reinstall Windows?  If so, the Recovery CD is not an urgent matter, but getting it is going to provide some level of comfort, I would think, in case it's needed to do a recovery installation of Windows in the future.

[soybean]

All you need is one of these...

But, patio, the hard drive is damaged.

[patio]

I understand...but there is no indication of the extent of the damage other than the laptop wouldn't boot.
Some or most of the data may still be retrievable...
10 bucks is not that much considering the cost of data retrieval programs or companies.

[LegoLas]

looking forward results...

since, i was the guy who was spent a lot (but final got my data back).

[patio]

Legolas you may want to remind us what that did wind up costing you...

If i remember it was photos etc and you used a Professional Data Recovery Co. correct ?