The “Price” Myth

Myth: Professional data recovery is expensive (starts at around $800).

$300 Data Recovery was created to dispel the “data recovery is expensive” myth. There was no affordable data recovery company before we started our business in 2007. Therefore, the driving factor in the cost of data recovery is the company you choose. At $300 Data Recovery, you already know exactly what a successful recovery will cost by using our Instant Rate Calculator.

With any other professional data recovery company, you will find a “range” of prices– or none listed at all. You’ll have to fill out a form to receive an estimate via email. Sometimes these companies try to entice you with rates “starting at $199,” but you will find the actual starting price is closer to $499 and quickly goes up to $1,500+ (not to mention fees for “donor parts” and “rush” service to get your data back in a few weeks).

Another consideration in the price of a successful data recovery is the problem with your hard drive. A general rule of thumb: if your drive has bad heads, other companies will charge at least $1,000, but could charge more than $2,000. This all comes down to the honesty and integrity of the data recovery company you choose (and the true problem with your hard drive) because hard drives can often mimic symptoms of bad heads when the problem is something else completely. *Note: if your drive has a bad head, we can often disable it and provide you with a partial recovery using the good heads or replace the heads if we have a donor drive in stock or costs less than $50. If the donor drive is greater than $50, we will offer our customers the option of purchasing or providing a donor drive.

Many companies charge different rates for different “levels” of data recovery, but can you trust them when your drive is diagnosed as needing “Level-3” recovery? At $300 Data Recovery, our price is firm, flat, and pre-determined for all drives we receive and we have even recovered “Level 3” problems that other big companies could not. We only charge our data recovery fee if we can recover your data.

Turn-around time is another crucial factor in determining the total cost for your data recovery. Look around and you’ll find other companies charge extra fees for “reasonable” turn-around times. It’s not unlikely you’ll find fees of $500 (non-refundable) or more for faster turnaround. At $300 Data Recovery, our average turn-around is about 5-10 days for standard service, for no extra cost. We also offer expedited Priority Service for a very reasonable fee ($50 up-front, non-refundable; +$150 if successful).

Transfer hard drives are the final price factor. Unlike some data recovery companies, we give our customers the option to provide us with their own transfer drive. We also have reasonable transfer drive prices, but you may save a little money by supplying your own.

Every day we hear stories from our customers who fell victim to the “data recovery is expensive” myth. They were told by other data recovery companies: “your hard drive has bad heads and will cost $800-$2,500 to recover.” Most of the time, we recover their data for $300. For the ~20% of hard drives we can’t recover, at least you will know for sure that you really do need an expensive procedure for any chance at recovery (if recovery is even possible).