[OT] Hard Drive Failure - data recovery

[neilball@xxxxxxx]

Well, it had to happen - I've experienced my first hard disk failure (I
think) in all of my many years using PC's &laptops..... and yes, before
anyone asks/laughs too loud (!!) I did not have a proper back up or
disaster recovery plan implemented. As a result I'm now left with the
difficulty and expense of deciding if it is worth trying to recover the
important data from the failed drive assuming that it is possible.

The failure is on my laptop, the disk is NTFS and boots to the windows XP
splash screen before BSOD'ing and rebooting again (and again and again...).
None of the boot options makes any difference, and the recovery CD fails
when trying to find XP on the machine before reinstalling. I don't think
this is virus related as I'm pretty anal about that sort of thing, which
leaves me concluding the problem is the hard disk itself.

Because of the importance of the data I don't want to try anything that
could cause more damage - I've seen suggestions that placing the hard drive
in a freezer may help - but I would rather try a professional solution
first. So can anyone suggest contacts worth trying to see if anything can
be recovered. I need to balance up the costs against likely results before
proceeding. Any help/recommendations would be gratefully received.

Neil B.