Applecare does not cover data recovery

Read the fine print. Sorry but if the hard drive in your macbook has crapped out you're out of luck. They will replace the drive but all of your photos, iTunes, videos, etc. is gone. The extent to the Apple technician's abilities include connecting the drive via enclosure to one of their bench machines. If the drive is a Seagate that was manufactured in China with a particular firmware, kiss your data goodbye. If the drive detects they can copy out your data using some software. If the drive clicks then you're in trouble. Expect to spend a thousand dollars on data recovery. I bet that external LaCie backup drive is looking pretty good right about now huh? Hard drives fail, yes, even Apple notebooks have hard drives that can fail.