I was just curious if anyone had any other ideas oh ways to recover data from a hard drive. Let me tell you what is happening and what I have tried so far.

The computer was brought to me because it wouldn't boot up anymore. It is a Dell Dimension, approx. 3.5 years old. I fired it up and it will not load windows. Keeps stating to press F1 to retry. I checked in the BIOS, and it is recognizing that there is a HDD there and giving all info about it. I have tried safe mode, last known good config, and all of the same results. I was able to boot to Knoppix, but it wouldn't let me view the drive. I tried slaving the drive on another computer, and couldn't see it. I tried using an IDE to usb converter and nothing. The drive will actually spin, but it won't read. I am just seeing if anyone has any other ideas other than sending it to a data recovery firm such as Ontrack.

If the hdd will spin this will recover the data. Cost is $100
Be aware it may take hours/days to run depending on the drive size and condition.

http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm

If you can't view the contents of the drive chances are the heads are damaged. You can try Easeus Data Recovery you can download a free trail version and see if it can find the files. If it does find the files you have the option of paying the registration fee so you can recover the files.

That's usually a missing or corrupt MFT. Spinrite will recover it.

That's fantastic. Thanks everyone for the suggestions.