Can't I just send the drive out to an outsourced company that promises the lowest costs and free pickup or delivery fees?
In order for us to provide you with a firm quote and no surprises on the cost of recovering your damaged storage device, we must first perform a diagnostic using state of the art professional equipment like the European PC3000 combined with over a decade of world class training and expertise. To us a diagnostic is not a simple software scan using downloadable recovery programs like your local computer shop would do in hopes that the drive is not physically damaged. We will provide a thorough examination in a certified class 10 clean room by a data recovery engineer on all physically damaged cases.
Data Recovery is broken down into three levels of complexity explained below in detail. Once the diagnostic has been completed, then we can provide you with a no obligation firm quote based off the complexity of the problems, cost of parts, and time involved. If you agree to the quote, then the work will proceed and you will be responsible for payment upon a successful recovery of your requested (noted on agreement form) data. If the data cannot be recovered for any reason, then no further charges other than the diagnostic fee and cost of parts (if agreed upon) will be due. There are cases where parts must be ordered and odds of success are low due to tampering, opening, banging, or running software on a damaged drive, etc…
In the event parts must be ordered and odds are low either from previous recovery attempts or previously opening and contaminated the platters, you may be required pay for the cost of parts regardless of the outcome before the remaining work can be completed. This will become clear upon completing the diagnostics. View the table below for the diagnostics rates and time frames before we can provide you with a firm quote. Please note the time frame begins when the drive is received by our lab.
Why is there a diagnostic fee when other companies offer free evaluations?
Taking your hard drive to a local repair shop that advertises data recovery along with a list of other services may seem like a logical and cost effective decision, but be warned that in the wrong hands and after further damage caused by negligence your recovery may no longer be possible. By using improper tools, running software on a damaged hard drive or physically opening the hard drive outside of a proper class 10 clean room will yield irrevocable damage causing lost data or complete destruction of your storage device. Nearly all multi service shops ship out your drive after damaging it further by running software on it to a third party in another state while tacking on middle man fees.
Standard diagnostic fee
- 48 hour diagnostics turnaround
- Includes all types of hard drives and flash drives including SSD
- A firm quote will be provided within 24 hours upon receipt of drive
Expedited diagnostic fee
- 12 hour diagnostics turnaround
- Includes all types of hard drives and flash drives including SSD
- A firm quote will be provided within 12 hours upon receipt of drive
Standard RAID drive diagnostic fee
- 48 hour diagnostics turnaround
- Includes IDE, SATA, SCSI, SSD and SAS drives
- A firm quote will be provided within 48 hours upon receipt of drive
Expedited RAID drive diagnostic fee
- 24 hour diagnostics turnaround
- Includes IDE, SATA, SCSI, SSD and SAS drive
- A firm quote will be provided within 24 hours upon receipt of drive
What would make my drive unrecoverable?
Tampering from your local computer shop, big box store, or an inexperienced data recovery company can render your drive unrecoverable in many ways. A drive that has been continuously powered on after a head failure will cause media damage (microscopic scratches on the surfaces of the platters). The heads read the data by floating above and below each platter, but never actually touching. If the platters become scratched, contaminated from opening, or nicked from banging, then partial or full data loss is inevitable.
USB Flash Sticks
- Advanced “Chip off”
- i.e.-NAND degradation, physically damaged or bent boards
SSD
- Advanced “Chip off” or PCB repair
- i.e.-corrosion from liquid damage or NAND degradation
Servers or NAS devices
- Rebuilding failed RAID arrays
- i.e.-damaged drives or a controller failure
Level 1 HDD Data Recovery
- Logical data recovery
- i.e.-accidental format or virus corruption
Level 2 HDD Data Recovery
- Minor physical damage
- i.e.-bad sectors, firmware corruption or weak heads
Level 3 HDD Data Recovery
- Major physical damage
- i.e.-bad heads, platter damage or seized motors
Verify the recovered data upon completion
Once the quote has been approved and the data recovery has been completed you will have the opportunity to verify the recovered data upon completion to ensure complete satisfaction in our services.