Im afraid that a hard drive is in my experience impossible to repair your self. The storage disks and drive mechanism are solidly encased and any attempts to pry it open yourself could seriously risk damaging the disk (I did this myself with a diswanted one).

As for the previously suggessted solution, I think that would not work at is not the IDE/SATA interface that is malfunctioning but the drive itself, therefore using a USB connection would heed no better results.

I would highly recommend you to get it done professionally but Im afraid I cant tell you as to anywhere not over the £100 mark
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My own experiences with this

It does not sound very promising, to be honest.

I did have a lucky break the other day with a HDD which had crashed. I popped it into a another PC and swapped it over to slave. managed to get it to recognise and pulled all the files off ot before it died out again.

If you have the means I would suggest giving it a try, but as laptops tend not to come with multiple drive bays, you will need to get a 2.5" to 3.5" converter.
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If it was a case of the drive having lost it's directory, you could do it yourself with any number of data recovery programs like GetDataBack or Photorescue (works for files as well as photos).

Unfortunately, what you are describing is a physical problem and not a logical (directory related) problem.

If you absolutely have to have the data that is on the disk, contact your insurance company and ask if they are able to cover all of part of the cost for the data transfer. You could put it down to accidentally bumping the laptop while it was saving a file.

Other than that, you'll have to bite the bullet and fork over the money.

And when you come to make your regular backups, don't rely on a single CD or DVD. I use two disks for everything and if it is vital I use three disks… just to be completely sure.

I've had drives go belly up on me before. And I've left them overnight or for 48 hours, plugged them into a 2.5" to 3.5" adaptor and USB IDE device (about £30 from Maplin) and they worked long enough that second time to drag off the files. Like a Second Chance Deal…

I hope this has given you some ideas of what to do.

Tell your insurance company that your financial records / latest novel / university thesis / college project write up is on that disk and it's irreplaceable. If they say they cannot help you, comment that you will have to look for a company that will be able to help you in future and not to send their renewal forms to you… that should get them interested in helping you out.

Good Luck!
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