OT: computer data recovery help needed.

Long tale of woe...

About 2 weeks ago we had what for us was an unusual power
failure in that it was a long stutter or flicker.  By the
time I could get the computer shut off, there had been
perhaps 5 or 6 "flickers."  

I was well protected against power surges by a cascade of
surge protectors so this does not seem to be the problem,
but at that time [I do now] I did not have an UPS for the
computers.  Attempting to start the computer the next day
after the weather cleared, I discovered that one hard drive
[160 GB IDE] was completely dead, and not recognized by the
OS [windows 2k] but was recognized/identified by the bios
and Western digital utility programs.  The other large hard
drive [320 gig partitioned 160/160 gig IDE with swap], had
both W2k and "Lucid Lynx" ubuntu running but lost the boot
menu and would only boot into windows. The boot floppy with
grub [to allow easy changes and editing w/some backup was
also wiped according to <computer> in Windows, but on
occasion would start to load with the boot menu.  I also had
a third older 10g IDE drive that I used for utility storage
with a plain vanilla rescue/backup copy of the w2k operating
system.  This would boot the system, but when removed by the
techs from the old computer to transfer data to my new
computer w/1T HD, it shot craps and is now not recognized as
a drive with the USB<->IDE adapter.  [does not appear to
have been dropped]

Took the computer to the shop and the motherboard was shot,
and just the computer components would cost more to repair
than a new one [labor extra].  


To summarize I have:

(1) 160 gig HD that went awol during the power stutter and
is not recognized by Win7 on new computer w/ USB<->IDE
interface.
FWIW - USB<->IDE interface is
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Sabrent-USB-2.0-to-IDE-SATA-Hard-Drive-Converter/15819320

(1) 10gig HD that crashed and burned [no magic smoke
escaped] when physically removed from old computer and bench
tested for data transfer. This drive was recognized [and was
working] by the old computer bios, and WD utility programs.
Not recognized by Win7 on new computer with ESB<->IDE
interface, but was recognized by the old bios and WD
utilities. [I currently have the drive in the freezer in a
ziplock bag to see if this will do any good.]

AND THE MAIN PROBLEM    ---
(1) 320 gb hard drive with both w2k and Ubuntu Lucid Lynx,
that the USB<->IDE controller recognizes, but which
[apparently] has the MBR [master boot record] wiped.
Windows7 on the new computer recognizes the drive but says
it is not formatted.  I am particularly interested in
recovering the *.doc, *.xls, *.ppt, and *.dwg files in the
windows partition [NTFS] on this drive.  There may be 50-100
meg of data.

I have downloaded several of the "free" win7 data recovery
programs from cnet, but none of these seem to work.
http://download.cnet.com/1770-2018_4-0.html?query=data+recovery&searchtype=downloads&rpp=10&filter=os=133 |platform=Windows&filterName=os=Windows%207|platform=Windows&tag=pe-searchFacetsTile;navForm


==> My questions to the group: has anyone used the data
recovery firms that advertise on the net?  Good experiences?
Bad Experiences?  Cost?  Time required?<==  
for example {nothing special about these firms except they
were at the top of google}
http://www.werecoverdata.com/landingpagegoogle.aspx?src=Google&gclid=CNuZlYOQ06oCFQvCKgod3nHu1g
http://www.gillware.com/?campaign=google1&gclid=CPyNtsmQ06oCFU3IKgodyBSX1Q
http://asapdatarecovery.com /


Any help or experiences you would care to discuss would be
greatly appreciated.
 
FWIW -- New computer is AMD quad core Aspire desktop.  
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Acer-PT.SGM02.002/16608489
My only complaint so far is that this has only digital sound
out, and you will need to buy an external USB->analog sound
card or internal analog sound card to use your existing
amps/speakers.
I have both of these on order and will let you know how they
work out
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Sabrent-6-Channel-PCI-Sound-Card/15819307
http://www.walmart.com/ip/SIIG-USB-SoundWave-7.1/10884549

Another thing to be aware of is that while many of your
older programs will run under 64bit win7, the oldest 16 bit
programs will not, even though these are still completely
functional.  In my case the Power Basic console compiler and
Winstat add in for Excel.  I am not yet sure of my cad
program (CMS InteliCAD). {and yes I am a cheap screw}