Canon SX20IS, 16GB SDHC Memory card Error Any Solution ?

Hello,
I have Canon Power Shot SX20IS digital camera. As per manual it accepts SDHC cards up to 32GB. I was using 7daysshop 16GB SDHC class 6 card with this camera. On our holidays recorded lots of still and videos.
One evening on switching on camera it came up with "Memory Card Error". I have another 16GB PNY SDHC class 6 card which works fine. But other card does not. I assume the problem is with the card. I stopped using the card immediately.
I tried to read the card on PC (Windows XP, SP3 with SDHC hot fix) with dedicated SDHC card reader. The message is "This drive needs formatting". I did not. The card is not locked.
Now I went through lots of forums and discussions on net. The basic message was - card is corrupted some how and thus can not be accessed. The solution advised was to use Card Recovery software. I tried few of these softwares - Card Recovery 5.30, Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery, Recuva etc.
On some of this 16GB card was showing up as 1GB device. Few of these softwares scanned the card but came up as bad sectors no files recovered.
I again consulted net - most discussions advised to format the card and then use recovery software. Now I tried to format the card in my camera - The message was "card can not be formatted". Then I tried to format the card on my PC - similar message "Formatting can not be completed". I tried with command prompt and DOS commond - same result. I ran the all recovery software same result.
Now I understand there is memmory chip and controller in the card and some how the controller is not functioning not allowing access to memmory chip on card.
I am not sure whether photos and videos on the card can be recovered. I came across several web sites offering data recovery from memory card but most of them are prohibitively expensive.
As I see this is common problem through out over the years. As I can not format the card neither in camera nor on PC or not on MAC, I think recovery softwares available may not work.
I was kind of hoping there would be some solution apart from physical memory recovery. It is possible there is some physical / electrical damage to contoller. There is no physical damage to the card as such. This physical data recovery process is damn expensive when I enquire with the professional data recovery firms. Is there anything that can be done to attempt physical data recovery DIY. I would hate not to able to access my camera photos and videos as I can not afford expensive data recovery.
Any solutiuons, suggestions apart from taking to expensive data recovery firms.
If any more information helps, let me know.
Thanks for help.
dt1966

dt1966,

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