Not really you can attack the drive but if you don't manage to get the data back the Professional Recovery is going to be much more expensive and far less likely to get as much as they otherwise would have got.
So if the Data is [b]Important[/b] I always tell people to save themselves the heart ache and just send it away. The cost isn't the important thing here but the amount of Data Recovered is very Important.
As for the costs this all depends on how much time and equipment is required. For Instance On Track managed to recover 99% of the data off a HDD that was on Colombia when it broke up and then the drive ht the ground at a great rate of Knots and got buried in a swamp for 3 months in 2 Days.
Personally I would shudder at the costs involved in recovering that drive but then again they would have to be cheaper than repeating the experiment that the drive was recording.
For working Drives here On Track asks for $900.00 AU for a Quote where they tell you what is recoverable which most times means running the Recovery Apps and seeing what can be got and then take that off the Price of the Recovery. The most that I've ever paid was 56K but that was a Priority Recovery on a Dead HDD so it's way more than I would be expecting to pay for something that is on a working HDD. Personally I wouldn't be expecting to pay more than a couple of K AU to get data off a working HDD unless there is some really nasty Hostage Ware involved.
I had a Broken USB Stick recovered for $450.00 recently which is the most recent one that I've needed to have done for a customer. But it all depends on what is involved and how much time is taken.
Mind you if you want to buy your own Software you can easily spend $12,000.00 US on something that works very well and then never use it again or can not recover your Data on the current HDD and you then have to start looking for another Recovery Package or pay a Professional. There is also long periods of time involved with some Recovery Software and many of the Low End Applications can take days to scan a Drive and just recover 1 file type. Of course the bigger the drive the longer it takes to get the data off it.
Here is a short list of the better ones but it is by no means a complete list of all the available software.
http://tinyurl.com/273ay5
http://tinyurl.com/rmvrv
http://tinyurl.com/yvrsl
http://tinyurl.com/yyk8cm
http://tinyurl.com/382vm
http://tinyurl.com/ynwnel
http://tinyurl.com/nc4kx
http://tinyurl.com/2wox7l
http://tinyurl.com/374d8b
http://tinyurl.com/djw6u
http://tinyurl.com/f73se
http://tinyurl.com/8bd3f
http://tinyurl.com/afu2j
While the last 2 are from the same company they are very different products. Win Hex should only be considered for use by someone who knows Hex Inside Out while Davory is a great cheap General Purpose Application.
Personally I prefer the On Track Option but it's anything but cheap. However because I use this type of software a lot it's paid for itself many times over by now, for a cheaper option Spin Rite from Gibson Research or Stella have both very good reputations by other TR members.
Col
