I've always had the sick desire to start a data recovery firm, and do nothing but hook the drive up, shake it a few times to try and get it started. If that didn't work, the next procedure would be to open it up with whatever's handy and try getting the platter spinning by hand.

I figure I'd have just as high a sucess rate as the professional places, and if not I'd still get to keep the initial $400 fee to look at the drive.

Really I guess I just don't trust the data recovery places. They charge an arm and a leg, and you have no way to verify they're going to any great lengths to get your data.

Matthew