I have decent access to the formatted area of the drive. Do you think this thing will attempt to pull any *.key files?
EDIT: It's all gone. Because its a very small drive, it likely got overwritten already. Tried with 3 different apps and none of them came back with any kind of wallet related file.
I would definitely take this to an expert unless you are sure that you have done all that is humanly possible to recover those coins.
Experts have special ways of getting data back, but there are obviously limits.
Imagine they are worth $100,000.00 each and start there. (even if one day they are worth 0, the possibility will haunt you.
I had at least 50 coins when they were worth a buck or so. Totally forgot about (didn't care about) the wallet at the time.
Formatted my drive.)
I don't want to beat this into the ground but you totally need to keep a current backup on usb key, or a few of them.
I have 2 computers here that are just used for backup purposes. Each with a few drives. Not on the internet.
I put a copy of my wallet every couple of days on each of their drives, and also I have the copy on my usb key. (Daily/weekly backups are especially important when you are doing lots of transactions anytime recently)
Also, for my coins in cold storage, I have printed copies of my private keys in 2 safes in different locations.
I know some people take this process way further, especially for those with lots of coins, I've only got a few in total.