Good HD to buy?

[atman]

So my PB's HD is totally fried. Does anyone have any suggestions on what what sort of new HD is best to buy these days?

-When i get it, can i install it myself or should i take it somewhere?

-I contacted a company that wanted to charge me $1000 to retrieve my lost data from my old HD that doesn't read anymore which I cannot afford. ANyone have any better ideas. They say the HD may need lubrication or something. oh the frustration....

thanks for any help,
Arthur

 

[barhar]

'So my PB's HD is totally fried.' - so you are sure the voice coil has shorted or opened?, or the electronics is damaged?!

'Does anyone have any suggestions on what what sort of new HD is best to buy these days? - any 2.5 inch (form factor) hard drive should do.
Which is best is subjective (4200, 5400, or 7200 rpm; and the size).
Which is not so good is via experience. If you want to hear a low whining noise (as the result of a self calibration process) approximately once a minute, consider any Hitachi (formerly IBM) hard drive.

'When i get it, can i install it myself ...' - yes (although not recommended), 'or should i take it somewhere?' - yes (should they be competent).

'I contacted a company that wanted to charge me $1000 to retrieve my lost data ... They say the HD may need lubrication or something.' - they cannot say anything until they have and opened the hard disk drive's case. Besides, they remove the platter(s) and use their own drive mechanisms, to attempt to retrieve the data.

'Anyone have any better ideas' - there are too many possible scenarios, as to the actual problem of your hard disk drives failure. Could be physical, mechanical, and / or electronic. As for 'hard drive recovers' services ... there is this Google search result.