Help!! Failed hard drive.

My macbook's hard drive failed last week. I took it to tekserve (authorized apple service in NYC), who were unable to recover the data. Tech there said, 'it's a seagate momentus. apple won't use those anymore.' i said, 'because they're bad?' tech: 'i'm not allowed to talk about it.' (!!) tech then said, 'we can send it to drive savers, they're the only ones who have a chance of recovering the data.' So off went the drive to drive savers, who were also unable to recover the data. They said there was a head crash with extensive media damage, data unrecoverable.

Now, I've learned that seagate has its own data recovery service (with its own extortionist pricing). I'm trying to decide if sending the drive to them is a waste of time. The computer was still under warranty (the only bright spot in this sad story) and apple will replace the drive At this point, I'm about to go away for 2 months computerless, so getting the thing fixed sooner would be a plus. Has anyone had experience with seagate service? Is it worth a shot? Any input appreciated. Thanks.

i have hitachi! is it good?

have you got any back-ups of important data

You have to have a backup. Seagate has made reliable drives, as does Hitachi. But they have motors, bearings and little tiny heads that 'float' on a ten-thousandths of an inch of air above rapidly spinning metal plates. Something, sometime, is going to break! Data recovery is freakishly expensive, but when a head actually hits the platter, the possibility of getting anything back is minimal.

I know I have to have backups of data and I do...sorta. There are a few crucial things that aren't backed up. (Lesson learned, the hard way.) Still wondering if anyone's had success with data retrieval on the third try. Thanks.

I'm new here, btw--great forum!

To the OP:

Don't bother. If Drive Saver's couldn't recover the data then most likely Seagate won't be able to either. A head crash usually damages the platters making any kind of recovery very difficult except for places that use very special methods and equipment. (FBI Labs)

Lesson learned? Backup, backup, backup.

Regards.