Originally Posted by cess

Every serious recovery company charges that much. It's not like they just hook it up to any old PC to recover the data. If you want to see why it cost so much check out how it's done (google).

There is a ghetto way of getting your data back though. You can buy the same HDD and switch the disks inside with the disks in the old drive. It's a lot harder than it sounds and doesn't always work. If you want to try it just search google for the details.