I was going to say that my opinion had shifted - except that ErrantX's reply seems reasonable. A $500 prize with relatively little publicity seems unreasonable

I was going to say that my opinion had shifted - except that ErrantX's reply seems reasonable. A $500 prize with relatively little publicity seems unreasonable for an operation that putatively takes a specialized SEM and a week of clustered computer time. A $50,000 prize (possibly paid for by insurance) would be more to the point, if they're really confident; and if the recoverers need a standard OS or other recognizable standard files in order to decode the mechanical operation of the HD, why not make that part of the challenge too?