OS X :: Mac Mini - Hardrive Crash

I was recently using my computer the other day which is a mac mini. I left it on and came back to use it and when I just clicked the mouse the screen froze. I tried using Ctrl-Alt-Esc but nothing worked so I just turned off the computer. I rebooted it again and I hear a clicking noise and the computer wont load, just a blank white screen. Repeated the same thing multiple times and still the same. Unfortunatley for me I didn't make a backup of the hard drive. I brought the computer into the apple store to get it fixed.

I wanted to know if there is any way to salvage(data recovery) any of the files from the hardrive or someway to recover them. I looked at how much it costs to do a data recovery and the price seems way to expensive.