My Toshiba Satellite A205-S5855 hard drive just took a dump. I tried doing system recovery using discs that came with laptop and an error came up…I called a toshiba tech and they told me I need new hard drive. In order for my system recovery to work, can i get any hard drive (for instance any from best buy) or must i get the same one i originally have in order for my software to work?

I was looking into data recovery places and i came across this site. Does anyone with experience know how much it would be to recover just a few gigabytes (at most 2) Or are there any electronic stores that you know that provide this service? (Circuit City, Best Buy, etc.)

I need to recover data from a damaged SimpleTech external hard disk by the way.