GilaMonster (3/28/2014)
Two things.They're not hard drive recovery specialists. If you don't have an mdf and an ldf which doesn't attach or a backup which won't restore (a full-sized backup, not the 20k one you have), don't call them. Contact a drive recovery company instead.
They are not cheap and recovering a database is not quick.
To be honest, unless the data in this lost database is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, I'd be looking at restoring that old backup that you have. At least then you'll have something, not the nothing that you've had for a week now.
I was referring him to Gillware.com for the hard drive. As for SQL best practices and DR if the backup is at least in part recoverable, I recommended SQL Skills. Sorry if my note was ambiguous.
Thanks
John.