Strangeways:

Probably the most cost efficient way of getting this window fixed is to take it out yourself and take it to a glass repair shop for them to do the work. Then, you put the glass back in. But, I'd phone around because my experience with glass repair shops is that the cost estimates you get from different glass repair shops will vary wildly.

Your pictures don't show any detail because everything is dark. Wait until evening and take pictures then so that the flash on your camera fires, and you see more detail in the picture. Take pictures of the inside corners of the window because if that's where you'll be able to see if there are stops holding the window in place. The way to tell if there are stops holding the window in is to look for a seam between the window frame and stop, and these will be most evident at the corners on the inside of the window. If the seams are arranged in such a way that it looks like there are pieces that come out in order to remove the glass, then those pieces that come out are stops and you need to remove those to get the glass out. The seam may be very thin and you might think the stop doesn't come out, but it does. The key is to look on the corners of the window on the inside to see if there are stops holding the glass in or not.

The glass in your window looks like a double glazed sealed unit. It will be more expensive to repair than if it were a single glazed sliding window. That's because double glazed sealed units require two panes of glass and both are bonded to a spacer unit between the panes. Look on the spacer unit between the panes for a sticker of some type or other identification as to who made that sealed unit. There will be places in every city that make up double glazed sealed units. You'll find that some places will be significantly more expensive than others, and that's often because the expensive places send their work to the cheap places to be done, and make a profit on their merely sending the window out to be repaired.

Your best bet is to take several pictures of your window, and take them down to any glass repair shop and they will tell you how to get the broken sealed unit out. I can't see it in your picture, but normally sealed units like that are held in with metal stops that run all around the window on the inside only.

You use a bee keeper's bar to pry those metal stops out.

http://www.homedepot.ca/wcsstore/Hom...US-10-CA_4.jpg

The A. Richard company calls this bar a "lever bar scraper", and these kinds of bars are about the only pry bars with an edge sharp enough to fit between the stop and the window frame. You can buy them at most hardware stores. Lots of companies besides A. Richard make them. Just print off that picture and take it with you and you should find some place that sells them. But wait to check with a window repair shop in your are to make sure you need one of these to remove the stops to get the glass out.

Normally, to remove the stops, you put the sharp edge of the pry bar into the seam under the window stop, bump it with the heel of your hand in an upward direction and the stop should pop out of the frame. You take all four stops out from around the glass, and then you might need a suction cup to pull the sealed unit out of the frame. Once you get the glass out, it'd be a good idea to use a damp sponge to clean the rubber lip on the outside of the window that keep rain from getting into the window frame.