[Slowhand] computer crash (no ec content)

[sam mangano]

Hi all:

lost my job on friday, then my computer crashes sunday nite....when it rains it pours! i am writing from a library terminal.

the computer repair guy is frustrated that he can't pull any data off my western digital 225GB drive that was in my Dell computer. he said it was a problem with the "partitions", and tried for about 4 hours? anyways, my wife had a friend whose computer crashed and she took it to best buy. they said they couldnt help her either. however, when she broke down and cried, a kind technician said he had an "illegal program" that he could try, and he was able to save everything.

has anyone had firsthand experience retrieving data from supposedly dead drives? if so and you can help me, please let me know. my main concern are all the pictures we have of our twins going back to when they were born. we only partially got some of those off the drive in recent months, so let this be a lesson to those who havent backed up their precious memories recently.....thanks! 

regards,
sam mangano