I had a hard drive crash on a fairly new Dell last spring--on that particular crash--nothing could be retrieve as the arm had actually dropped on the disk and it was completely destroyed..or so I was told by the local tech..

Have had others where it was retrieved by the same tech..depends greatly on the extent of damage to the actual disk/drive

Having said that, my sister is a forensic computer investigator for a major oil company..she says she can retrieve almost anything if it is somewhat useable even if it has been erased by the user...

I would think it should not cost more than $250 to $350. to have it done if possible..

Ripp