So, I did the one thing someone in the art field should never do: I didn't back up my files. Any of them. Ever. And my hard drive up and died. Lesson learned.
And now I have a new iMac, but all my old files are gone. Illustrations, scripts 63 gigs of music, a lot of movies, photos from college, videos from college. All that stuff. It's a mechanical failure as the HD won't spin, and I get no response even after putting it in an external enclosure.

I wanted to know where the best place to turn to would be that can get my files back. I'm not concerned with money (well, I am, but let's say Im not) I just want results and I know there are a lot of scam places out there.

Also, what are the chances of me repairing it myself just to rip the files off? Are there step-by-step guides? Videos? The thought didn't cross my mind until just now, it seems risky, but is it within the realm of possibility? I'm not a novice when it comes to the inner workings of computers having Frankensteined several over the years from older models.

Thanks for the help.

use this trusted program
http://www.asoftech.com/adr/

By yourself, nearly impossible. A Pro will charge hundreds to thousands on dollars, depending on how much work it is, to recover.

.. or outsource to a data recovery company to do it if you are willing to pay their price.

I'd reccomend taking it to your nearest reputable computer shop. I recently had a hard drive die on me and they were able to fit a new 500gb hard drive and restore all the data from my old one for just £45. I'd also reccomend getting a cheap external drive or second internal one to back everything up to in future. If you take your old drive to the shop when you buy a new one they should be able to recover your data to it for a little extra. Don't risk doing it yourself if money isn't that much of a problem.

It sounds like you've already looked into a bit, good for you. I usually try getting int oit in Linux--however if it won't spin at all that may not work either. If you can get it to spin you can use PCi File Inspector or Diskdigger to get the files off. Both are free and work very well.
As a last resort you can try putting it in the freezer for about 5 hrs then plugging it back in. This sometimes allows it to work for long enough to extract your files before it finally crashes. Only do as a last resort because after that it WILL NOT WORK.
As far as places to go no I'm sorry there are many I don't know which to tell you.

It sounds like you've already looked into a bit, good for you. I usually try getting int oit in Linux--however if it won't spin at all that may not work either. If you can get it to spin you can use PCi File Inspector or Diskdigger to get the files off. Both are free and work very well.
As a last resort you can try putting it in the freezer for about 5 hrs then plugging it back in. This sometimes allows it to work for long enough to extract your files before it finally crashes. Only do as a last resort because after that it WILL NOT WORK.
As far as places to go no I'm sorry there are many I don't know which to tell you.

Hi there,
I would first try to recover the files with a data recovery program.
Try this one called Tenorshare Data Recovery. It can recover data after deeply scanning your hard drive to look for lost data due to drives crash, physical damage,system sabotage, virus corrupted partitions,ect.It even can recover data from a dead hard drive!Have a try!
You can google to get it.
If it fails, you will have to go to a recovery office but let's hope not because it will cost you a lot of money and whether they can recover the files or not is not guarantee.