Oh it'd be a job for a top tier professional recovery service, it would be expensive I'm sure, but if we're talking almost a billion....a couple thousand would be nothing lol

You can swap logic boards and get things to work, but there's a good chance it'll be forensic recovery at that point.

After 12 years in a landfill that drive would be full of garbage soup. I've taken plenty of drives apart, and they aren't completely sealed.

That PCB is toast and ya really cant swap PCBs and expect it to work. Sorry but after a year in a landfill that would be toasted.

Ya might be able to read the platters if youre lucky, but I still doubt it.

You mean on a technical level or on a "It's physically lost forever" level?

Because had he found it, the chances for recovery would have been fairly decent...if he was able to locate it...

That HDD was unrecoverable years ago.