Help recovering wallet.dat from 2009-2010

[Ajax_NZ]

I mined some bitcoin blocks in late 2009 / early 2010 but reformatted the HD when I upgraded from Vista to Windows 7.  I still have the WD hard drive, but having done a deep scan using Stellar to try to find the original wallet.dat file, the only files that I can find are the .exe, wallet.dat and Multibit files from when I redownloaded bitcoin core in January 2014.  A few questions:

• How likely is it that I will be able to find the original missing files on my own using commercially-available tools?  Any recommendations in this regard, beyond Stellar?
  
• If your advice is to send the HD off to a commercial data recovery / forensics outfit, what best practice steps can I take to ensure that I don't lose any recovered BTC from a bad actor?  Any recommendations in this regard?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[BitHodlers]

I mined some bitcoin blocks in late 2009 / early 2010 but reformatted the HD when I upgraded from Vista to Windows 7.  I still have the WD hard drive, but having done a deep scan using Stellar to try to find the original wallet.dat file, the only files that I can find are the .exe, wallet.dat and Multibit files from when I redownloaded bitcoin core in January 2014.  A few questions:

How likely is it that I will be able to find the original missing files on my own using commercially-available tools?  Any recommendations in this regard, beyond Stellar?

Depends on how well it was rewritten and how much it was used afterwards. Probably a low chance because of how old the situation is.

If your advice is to send the HD off to a commercial data recovery / forensics outfit, what best practice steps can I take to ensure that I don't lose any recovered BTC from a bad actor?  Any recommendations in this regard?

How do you know that the Bitcoin are still on that wallet especially since you used Bitcoin much later in 2014? It is more likely that you have spent it or transferred it in later usage. Do you maybe know the addresses that they are on? In any case if you do this with a very reputable establishment a theft by them would be noticeable easily. The coins would be transferred some day after you have given the HDD to them. That would be evidence that they stole it or mishandled it. Besides going with a reputable company, if they do manage to recover it make sure you have another wallet ready to transfer them as soon as they give you the HDD at their company.

[nc50lc]

• How likely is it that I will be able to find the original missing files on my own using commercially-available tools?  Any recommendations in this regard, beyond Stellar?
  

2009/2010 really?
Anyways, some people are opting to search for possible private keys instead of the whole wallet.dat file which was probably completely overwritten by now.
It works by searching for "magic numbers" which could be followed by a private key.

For example, Pywallet does this with its --recover command.
However its success isn't certain since it depends on many factors and false-positives "found keys" are also common.
If you want to try, search this forum for instructions but only use a clone of your disk as much as possible.

If you're going for a professional service, you may mention that method and they might have better tools to search for magic numbers other than pywallet.
But since they need your HDD, your data's safely is something only trust and their reputation can answer.

[Eddriod]

Have you checked if the old Vista install had any restore points left on the drive? Sometimes fragments survive there. Also, clone the disk before any more scans, every read/write reduces your odds slightly.