Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: How long does a recovery take?
A: The average recovery can take anywhere from one to five days. Recoveries that need parts usually average five to thirty days. If no parts are needed the recovery usually takes one to three business days.

Q: Will I be charged a service fee?
A: You will never be charged a service fee if you decide to quit the recovery or if we fail to recover your data. We only charge for the shipping back to you. Shipping charges can be found on the Pricing page.

Q: Can I bring the hard drive to you?
A: Yes. Please put the drive in a box and include the recovery services form. Hard drives can be dropped off between 10am and 5pm Mon-Fri. Please call for after hours drop off.

Q: Do you keep backups?
A: When you receive the hard drive back from a recovery you have exactly 72 hours (3 days) from delivery to inspect the recovery media and make certain it arrived undamaged. Backups can be stored for longer periods of time at an additional fee. The fee depends on the storage time and size of recovery.

Q: What will you do with the old drive if we don’t want it back?
A: If your drive is unrecoverable and you do not want it back then we will dispose of the drive. To dispose of a drive we take out the inside platters and physically destroy them. We never sell defective drives to other companies.

Q: Do you recover Windows, Mac, and Linux hard drives?
A: We recover Windows, Mac, and Linux hard drives at no additional fee.

Q: My drive is making loud scratching noises, can you recover this?
A: Hard drives can make many different noises from soft clicking, loud clicking, scratching, squeaking, high pitch, scrapping, motor noise, and many more. When contacting us it is best to describe the exact noise you are hearing. Unless the drive is making a constant scratching/scrapping noise it is difficult to diagnose a drives recoverability. If in doubt send it to us for a professional opinion. Please visit the Support page before sending a hard drive.

Q: Do you charge extra for recovery media?
A: We charge a set price for recovery media. If you supply your own recovery media then we only charge for the recovery and shipping. Recovery media prices and types can be found on the Pricing page.

Q: What information do we need to send with the hard drive?
A: Please fill out the recovery services form and include with your shipment.

Q: What payment methods do you accept?
A: We accept VISA, MASTERCARD, AMERICAN EXPRESS, DISCOVER, BANK ATM CARDS, E-Checks, and Paypal payments. All of our online payment options are secured thru Google Checkout and Paypal.

Q: How does your shipping process work?
A: We ship everything USPS priority or express mail. Insurance is optional and tracking numbers are included with the shipping price. We can also use your UPS or FedEx account number. Shipping charges can be found on the Pricing page.

Q: Do you charge by the size of my hard drive or how much you can recover?
A: We charge by the size and type of your hard drive regardless of the amount of data that needs to be recovered. All fees can be found on the Pricing page.

Q: If you have to open my drive, will it be opened in a clean room?
A: We use a Class 100 clean room for all internal repairs. There is no extra charge for clean room repairs.

Q: Do you recover data from SCSI hard drives?
A: At the moment we do not recover data from SCSI hard drives.

Q: Will you come to us and recover our hard drive at our location?
A: We do not offer onsite recovery services at this time.

Q: Why are your prices more than these other companies that offer to fix anything for $199 or $299?
A: It may look like a great deal for data recovery but you should know these facts before sending your drive to them:

1. These companies rely more on a volume of good working drives with just a few problems. Any drives that require more than just one hour to recover are often deemed unrecoverable. The customer assumes they must be correct and their precious data is never recovered. We have seen several drives from these companies that were deemed unrecoverable due to lack of time or technical ability.
2. Their data recovery services are usually second to their computer repair services. Our company focuses only on data recovery.
3. They never offer clean room services or service internal parts. All repairs are external. Many don't even bother to repair the damaged parts and call it unrecoverable. The customer assumes they must be correct and never seek a second opinion.
4. Most of the time they use outdated and unreliable techniques to recover data which raises the rate of unrecoverable drives. Having a high volume of recoveries allows them to pick and choose the easy ones.
5. We often get calls from these companies when they cannot complete the recovery
6. Most of the time they make it more difficult for the next recovery company to recover the drive. We have seen several drives that were sabotaged to prevent a future recovery.
7. Your drive is often worked on by a computer repair person with little to no knowledge of data recovery.
8. We have seen several of these companies come and go. Often when they go out of business the customer never gets their drive back.
9. The first couple of hours are usually the most critical to perform a proper data recovery. After it has been worked on for several hours by one of these companies and deemed unrecoverable, the recovery chance goes down for the second data recovery company.

Q: What if I have a special request?
A: We handle special requests on a case by case basis. Some of the special requests we receive are:

1. Compress data with RAR or ZIP technology to decrease the recovery media needed for a recovery.
2. Format recovery media for reading from a specific operating system.
3. Request failed drive back in a working condition. Depending on the failure this may require the customer purchasing the donor we used to repair the drive.*
4. Sign a non-disclosure agreement.
5. Download service for recovered data.*
6. Email critical files to customer. (max. 5MBs)

 

* Additional fees may apply.