“Don’t know how much time it will take to recover from this painful situation.”

I hear that allot. Individuals, rather than companies, will often get a “false diagnosis” from Dell, GeekSquad, Etc. These types of companies are in the business of SALES. Not saving your data, in your best interest.

I’ve seen this allot, and more often than not when the client request to the drive back, I find there is

A. Nothing wrong with the hard drive.
B. It’s a logical error – recoverable for around $400-800
C. Windows was corrupted or unbootable, but the data is still intact and easily accessible.

Dell will always prefer to cover up their faults, and sell/replace/swap to get it out of the way.

Food for thought.