Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take to get my data back?
The usual data recovery service turnaround is from four days to a week. Hard drives with mechanical problems such as clicking or hissing noises may take longer, because an exact matching donor drive must first be found. Once the donor drive is found it is used as a donor drive to perform the hard drive repair of the damaged drive in our Los Angeles data recovery clean room. Older donor drives are more difficult to find.
Do you recover data in 100% of the cases?
There is no data recovery company that can recover data from a failed drive in 100% of the cases. There is a 70-80% chance of a successful data recovery in cases of accidental formatting of a drive, erased partitions, corrupted FAT, and similar software issues. For hard drives with mechanical problems, the data recovery success rate is somewhat lower, especially in cases of physical damage to the hard drive, platters, or data area.
Do you return recovered data in the same drive?
For your own protection, the data rescued after the data recovery procedure is done is returned in a different drive or burn onto a blank DVD. If the total size is 4GB or more, we recommend an external hard drive, which may cost an additional $79 for a 250 GB USB drive.
Do you charge a data recovery diagnostic fee?
Yes, the standard data recovery diagnostic fee is $60. The fee is assessed whether we are able to rescue your data or not. For hard drive repairs requiring a sanitized room, an additional non-refundable deposit of $140 is required to purchase identical donor drives. The data recovery diagnostic fee and the initial deposit are non-refundable. Any initial amounts paid are applied towards the data recovery total fees.
How do I prepare my drive before shipping it for data recovery service?
The instructions on how to prepare a hard drive before shipping it for data recovery service are found here.