Frequently Asked Questions
LowCostRecovery |
449 W. Foothill Blvd, #160 |
Glendora, CA 91741 |
1(626)498-9754 |
10am - 10pm PST Mon-Sun |
"When my external hard drive crashed, I lost over 10 years worth of important, personal data, financial information, family photos, contacts and more. After reviewing alternatives online, I choose Lowcostrecovery. Moreover, the price was unbeatable. They charged the lowest fee for the recovery and actual costs for replacement parts. This experience was an A+.”
Jeremy, CA
"Thank you so very much for saving me from myself! Can you say "back-up" from now on?"
Jim, CA
"Just wanted to thank you for a great & fast job recovering my drive. I would recommend you to anyone."
Andy, IL
"As a consumer, it seems you rarely get was is advertised. Not the case at all with Lowcostrecovery. We sent our drive in, you explained the problem, you gave us a quote that matched the prices listed on the site, and you sent us our memories back. We weren't charged hidden fees and we couldn't be happier."
Tom & Lisa, VA
"Needless to say "thanks" is a small gratitude for your quick turnaround and professional service (at a price I could afford!). That combination doesn't always work out well in most lines of business. I've already recommended you to several associates. Of course, we all hope we never need your services, but it can happen to anyone, and you're definitely the one call I'm going to make if it ever happens again."
Doug, NY.
"Thank you so much for your services! I will definitely be letting others know about your service, as I know that low cost data recovery is difficult to come by and I am extremely pleased not only with the cost, but also with your communications in keeping me up to date with the process. Thank you again."
Shawn, PA.
"Thank God that I found Lowcostrecovery. I work out of my home office. My computer is only a couple of years old. My hard drive crashed one morning and it was terrible. I could not even turn my computer on. Needless to say I was desperate and started making the normal panic frustrating toll free phone calls. I used the Internet for Data Recovery and was shocked by the amount these companies charge...Then I found Lowcostrecovery and they saved all of my data (everything). I was totally satisfied with their pricing and response time."
Mike, CA.
"When I sent my dead hard drive in, I crossed my fingers and prayed. I was afraid that I’d never see my photo collection again. The same day that it was received, they called me to say that my pictures were saved! Yay! Great results! Great turn around! Great price!"
Brandon, CA.
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 twenty days if we don't have them in stock. 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 12pm 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 fifteen 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 charge more for self encrypting Western Digital drives?
A: No.
Q: Do you charge more for USB based external drives?
A: No.
Q: Do you recover Windows, Mac, and Linux file systems?
A: We recover Windows, Mac, Linux, and many other file systems at no additional fee.
Q: Do you offer RAID recovery?
A: We offer RAID recovery for the following arrays:
- RAID 0
- RAID 1
- RAID 2
- RAID 3
- RAID 4
- RAID 5
- RAID 6
- RAID 0 + 1
- RAID 1 + 0
- RAID 5 + 1
- JBOD
- Software based
Physical or Logical recovery rates apply to the failed drive or drives in the RAID array. Each additional undamaged drive in the array would be $199 each. For example, a RAID 0 two drive system where one drive has physically failed would be the physical price for the failed drive and $199 for the second undamaged drive.
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.
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, Venmo, Zelle, and PayPal payments.
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 Baker Company Class 100 clean room onsite for all internal repairs.
Q: Do you recover data from USB flash drives?
A: At the moment we do not recover data from USB flash 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 $299?
A: It may look like a great deal for data recovery but you should know these facts before sending your drive to them:
- 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.
- Their data recovery services are usually second to their computer repair services. A successful data recovery company will only focus on recovering data. Our company focuses only on data recovery.
- Most will say they offer clean room services onsite but in reality they send it out to a third party and charge more. 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.
- 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.
- We often receive drives from other companies when they cannot complete the recovery.
- Most of the time they make it more difficult for a real data recovery company to recover the drive. We even see drives that were sabotaged to prevent a future recovery.
- Your drive is often worked on by a computer repair person with little to no knowledge of data recovery. If they can't recover the data your drive is often sent to a third party at a much greater expense.
- We have seen several of these companies come and go over the years. Often when they go out of business the customer never gets their drive or data back.
- 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. It's really heartbreaking to tell a customer their data was probably recoverable before someone messed with it.
- Often these companies will hire people to write fake reviews.
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:
- Compress data with RAR or ZIP technology to decrease the recovery media needed for a recovery.
- Format recovery media for reading from a specific operating system.
- 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.*
- Sign a non-disclosure agreement.
- Download service for recovered data.*
- Email critical files to customer. (max. 5MBs)
* Additional fees may apply.