Legal Question in Technology Law in Virginia

Best Buy lost my hard drive.

I am a freelance graphic designer that's always out, so I work on my laptop all the time for various clients. About three weeks ago my laptop did not want to load properly, and because I bought it about 3-4 months prior, I brought it back to Best Buy. Apparently my hard drive was corrupt. They were going to replace it for free, but it would cost me $100 to have information backed up. I asked them if they would return my old hard drive back to me, they said yes, by law they have to. So I said no to the back up since I could fix my hard drive and get my info off it later myself. When I got it back they said my hard drive was missing. In about 3-4 weeks I had talked to them several times until they said they officially lost it because someone may have accidentally thrown my hard drive away. They offered me no compensation and I had no chance to get my information backed up because I had expected it back. If they weren't going to give it back, I would have paid the $100 considering my $4000s worth of work on there.

so my overall question is: Is it against the law to not return a hard drive with all my information on it because they lost it? and should I be able to be compensated for this loss? Thanks.

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