Do I Have to Buy a Transfer Drive From You?

No. You can supply your own transfer drive and there’s no charge from us for it. If you’d rather we provide one, they start at $125 for 1TB. A transfer drive is simply the drive your recovered data gets written to, and you need one either way because your failed device can’t be trusted to hold it.

What is a transfer drive?

It’s the healthy drive we copy your recovered data onto and send back to you. It’s not a repair of your original device and it isn’t the same thing as a donor drive.

People mix those two up constantly, so:

  • A transfer drive is a working drive that receives your recovered data. Every successful recovery needs one.
  • A donor drive is a drive we take internal parts from to repair your failed drive. Only mechanical failures need one.

Your original device is never used as the destination. A drive that has already failed once is not somewhere to put the only copy of your data.

What does one cost if I buy it from you?

Capacity Price Capacity Price
1TB portable $125 8TB desktop $300
2TB portable $150 12TB desktop $425
4TB portable $200 16TB desktop $500
22TB desktop $600

In plain terms: transfer drives from $300 Data Recovery start at $125 for 1TB and go up to $600 for 22TB. Portable drives are bus-powered; desktop drives from 8TB up need their own power adapter.

What are the requirements if I bring my own?

Straightforward ones:

  • It must be new or empty. Anything on it may be erased.
  • It must be large enough for the data being recovered, with room to spare. When in doubt, go larger.
  • It must be a working, reliable drive. An old drive you had in a drawer is a poor choice for the only copy of data you just paid to recover.
  • Include the cables it needs. If it’s a desktop drive requiring a power adapter, send that too. We can’t return data on a drive we can’t power.

SSDs, M.2 and NVMe drives are all acceptable as transfer drives.

USB flash drives are generally not a good idea. They’re slower, less reliable for long-term storage, and rarely large enough. If your recovery is small and you specifically want one, ask us first.

Can I use one transfer drive for two recoveries?

Yes, provided it’s big enough for both. If you’re sending two devices, one adequately sized transfer drive can receive both recoveries. Say so when you submit, so we know to expect it.

Note that each device still needs its own mail-in or drop-off form and is priced independently. Sharing a transfer drive saves you the cost of a second drive, not the second recovery fee.

Can the transfer drive be encrypted?

Yes, for a flat $50. We’ll encrypt the outgoing drive with BitLocker for Windows-formatted drives or FileVault for Mac-formatted drives, and give you the password.

It’s worth considering if the drive is travelling and the data is sensitive, since it means a lost or stolen drive doesn’t expose your files. One caution: record the password somewhere safe. We can’t recover an encrypted transfer drive if you lose it.

This is separate from encryption on your original device, which we handle at no extra charge.

What if the transfer drive you send is faulty?

Tell us and we’ll sort it out. Drives occasionally fail in transit or arrive defective. That’s on us, not on you.

Can I get a second copy on another drive?

Yes. A $100 Moving Fee covers the labor of re-transferring already-recovered data, with the second transfer drive and shipping billed separately. If you supply your own drive for the second copy, there’s no drive charge.

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