Data Recovery Prices

Once your data is recovered, we’ll move the files to another storage device (hard drive, SSD, external drive). We call this device the “Transfer Drive.”

Here’s what you need to know if you want to buy a Transfer Drive from us:

All our Transfer Drives are brand new, name brand (Toshiba, Western Digital, Seagate, Hitachi, or Samsung), and backed with at least a 1-year manufacturer warranty.

PORTABLE USB 3 HARD DRIVES (these drives are powered from your computer using a USB cable):

• 1TB: $75
• 2TB: $105

DESKTOP USB 3 HARD DRIVES (these drives are powered using a power adapter/wall outlet):

• 4TB: $150
• 6TB: $170
• 8TB: $200
• 12TB: $300
• 16TB: $350

Larger drives are available upon request. 

Transfer Drive prices do not include sales tax (for CA residents only).

Here’s what you need to know if you want to provide your own Transfer Drive:

1) The drive must be empty. Your transfer drive will be formatted (all your data will be permanently deleted) before we start moving the recovered data.

2) If your transfer drive is too small or defective (i.e., contains bad sectors, un-mounts itself while moving data, etc.), you must purchase a drive from us. We highly recommend providing a drive at least 2-3x larger than your “bad” drive.

3) The drive must be a USB external hard drive or a bare SATA drive.

4) Transfer drive cannot be a NAS (with an ethernet connection) or a USB flash drive (unless the bad drive is also a flash drive or other small devices, like an SD card).

5) The drive must arrive in the same box as the bad drive (you cannot send in a transfer drive after we receive your bad drive). You must buy a transfer drive from us if you do not include one with your bad drive.

If your hard drive is larger than 2TB, there is an extra $100 fee if we can recover your data. We charge this fee due to the extra time required to clone large drives. Even if just a small amount of data is being used, we still clone the entire drive, as this is the safest approach in most cases.

Other data recovery companies charge $1 per GB, which means a 3TB drive would cost $3000. A successfully recovered 3TB drive with us is just $400.

If your hard drive is larger than 8TB, there is an extra $200 fee if we can recover your data. We charge this fee due to the extra time required to clone large drives. Even if just a small amount of data is being used, we still clone the entire drive, as this is the safest approach in most cases.

Other data recovery companies charge $1 per GB, which means a 10TB drive would cost $10000. A successfully recovered 10TB drive with us is just $500.

If you have an encrypted device, there is an extra $100 fee if we can recover your data. Any encrypted device is more difficult and time-consuming to diagnose and recover. Some examples of encryption include:

• Most Western Digital external hard drives (i.e., “My Passport”) with “Smartware” or “SED” (these drives are encrypted at the sector and firmware level, even if you never set a password)
• Some Western Digital internal hard drives (all “SMR” drives are encrypted)
• Some Seagate drives have SED (but we don't charge an encryption fee unless we need to perform an MCU swap because your PCB is defective)
• HP SmartSave external hard drives
• Apple’s FileVault
• Maxtor/Seagate “Black Armor” external hard drives
• TrueCrypt
• PGP / PGP Desktop
• BitLocker
• Full Disk Encryption hard drives (“FDE”)
• McAfee Endpoint Encryption
• Samsung SSD Encryption (if password is enabled)
• SanDisk Secure Access

Other data recovery companies charge $500-$2000 extra for encrypted hard drives.

If your device has a USB port built-in to the PCB (Printed Circuit Board), there is an extra $100 fee if we can recover your data. This is due to the complexity of recovering data from a “USB-PCB” device, as it does not have the standard “SATA” or “IDE” interface on the PCB.

You can use the pictures below to determine if your device has a USB-PCB (if you have an external drive, you’ll need to disassemble the enclosure). Send us a picture of your device if you need help identifying your PCB.

“SATA” PCB

“IDE/ATA” PCB

“USB” PCB

Other data recovery companies charge $300-$1200 extra for USB PCBs.

We charge $300 up-front/non-refundable for deleted, formatted, and lost/overwritten file recoveries. There is an additional $100 fee for drives larger than 2TB; $200 for drives larger than 8TB.

We charge this fee up-front because we will recover all possible files from the drive. But, we cannot possibly know which files will be recovered until after the entire recovery is finished.

Once the recovery is finished, we’ve recovered 100% of the sectors on the drive and 100% of the files that could be recovered. But, because deleted/missing files may have been overwritten or only partially recoverable, we cannot guarantee which files will be recovered.

Due to the nature of a deleted, formatted, or overwritten/missing files recovery, you may pay our full rate and not get back the files you need. You must accept this risk if you wish to proceed with our recovery.

*Note: our $100 “USB PCB” and $100 “Encryption” fees do not apply for most “deleted files” or “format” recoveries unless we need to clone the drive (i.e., it has bad sectors or firmware corruption). The exception is newer Western Digital SMR drives with MCU and Firmware encryption. If these drives have been formatted, the cost to recover is $500.

We’ll refund the recovery cost (minus a $100 labor fee) if no working files can be recovered.

We strongly recommend using a new transfer drive to save the recovered data. Although it’s possible to move the recovered data back to the original/recovered device, this is not advisable since further recovery attempts would be impossible.

We charge a $100 labor fee for imaging 99-100% of the sectors on your device when no files are recoverable. This will be the case if your device is completely empty due to being formatted, or all the files were previously deleted. Or, if your device was encrypted and you don't remember the password or have the Recovery Key.

Our RAID data recovery services save our customers thousands of dollars because our data recovery prices are often less than 1/8 the cost our competitors charge, and we achieve the same results (assuming they are as good as us). RAIDs are charged per hard drive. Below are some example prices:

• 2 x 1TB drives in RAID-0 from a Lacie or MyBook enclosure = $600 ($300 per device)
• 12 x 250GB drives in RAID-6 from an Areca enclosure = $3,600 ($300 per device)
• 30 x 2TB drives in RAID-5 from an HP server = $9,000 ($300 per device)
• 5 x 5TB drives in RAID-5 from a Dell server = $2,000 ($400 per device)
• 2 x 10TB drives in RAID-1 from a Western Digital MyBook = $1,000 ($500 per device)

No charge if your data can’t be recovered.

Most data recovery companies start at $3500 for a 5-drive RAID.

Return shipping costs $20 (within the USA) for a single-drive recovery (with one Transfer Drive). *Multi-drive recoveries, RAIDs, servers, or shipping an entire computer instead of the bare hard drive may incur additional fees due to size/weight. 

We encourage international customers to include a return shipping label (with customs forms, if applicable) to avoid unforeseen return shipping fees or hassles.

After your data recovery is finished (successful or not), you’ll have 14 days to pay for the recovery (or for return shipping costs). After 14 days, there is a $10 per week storage fee to retain your device and accessories. Due to our limited storage capacity, after 60 days of non-payment, your device and accessories become the property of $300 Data Recovery and will be recycled or destroyed.

We charge $25 for “device destruction services” if you wish to completely destroy your device to prevent future data access. Learn more about our destruction services.

If you have an iBook, PowerBook, old MacBook Pro, certain PC laptops that are difficult to open or an iMac/All-in-one PC, there is a non-refundable $75-$150 fee for removing the hard drive. We can only perform data recovery with direct access to the bare hard drive once it is removed from the computer/enclosure.

If the cover of your hard drive has been opened (exposing the platters), a $100 non-refundable up-front payment is required.

This fee is due to the increased diagnosis/repair time required after opening the cover. Opening the cover can create several other problems, separate from the original problem, which makes repairing the drive more difficult and time-consuming.

When the cover goes on the hard drive (at the factory, by a machine), the screws are all tightened to an exact amount. Then, the heads are programmed to work with this “amount.” How tight each screw is screwed into the cover can affect the head alignment. Therefore, once the screws have been adjusted in any way, the “cover” alignment is different, and the “head” alignment may be too different to work. The heads are very tiny, and the room to move around is extremely small, so if things aren’t “aligned” perfectly (each screw tightened and cover in the exact correct location), the heads may not move correctly and can’t read data.

The $100 is put towards the recovery fee if your recovery is successful. 

The “cover” is not the same as the “enclosure.” There is no extra fee if you have an external hard drive and you have removed the plastic enclosure.

EXAMPLE 1:

Left: Cover on; Right: Cover off, exposing platters to dirt, dust, and other particles

EXAMPLE 2:

The hard drive cover is off, exposing the heads and platters inside the drive.

EXAMPLE 3:

All these hard drives have their covers on, and the platters and heads have not been exposed.

Many more examples here:

If your helium-filled drive (these are usually 14TB or larger hard drives) has stuck heads or a bent spindle, we can try to unstick the heads after removing the drive's cover. But, we charge a $100 fee to offset the time required to remove a helium drive's cover and the low likelihood of success for this procedure (less than 20%). This fee is due up-front and is non-refundable but is subtracted from the total cost if the recovery is successful.

If we determine your helium drive has stuck heads or a bent spindle and you don't want to pay this fee, you can cancel the recovery for no additional charge and hang onto your drive. We may have better success rates with this issue in a few years.

About 20% of hard drives we receive have bad heads (these are most often drives that have been dropped). We always try to offer our customers the option of an affordable partial recovery by disabling the bad head(s) and recovering data using the remaining good heads. But sometimes, the only way to recover any data is by replacing parts inside the drive. In these cases, we will offer you the option of providing/paying for the required donor part. You can also decline our attempt and pay nothing if we can’t recover any data and you’re unwilling to cover the cost of a donor drive.

Please see the Donor Drive section of our FAQ for more information about donor drives.

If you have a Microsoft Surface that requires chip-off recovery and a complete disassembly (e.g., Surface Pro 5, Pro 6, or Pro 7), we charge a $75 “chip removal fee.”

If you have a different tablet or laptop with an eMMC or UFS chip instead of an SSD (e.g., some Asus and Lenovo laptops and some phones), we may charge $75 to remove the chip, depending on the difficulty.  This $75 fee is due up-front and is non-refundable even if the recovery is unsuccessful.

The cost to recover a Microsoft Surface Tablet or Laptop is $300, plus $100 if your device is encrypted with Bitlocker. Note: most Surface devices are Bitlocker encrypted, and to decrypt your data, we need the full password or Recovery Key to recover the data — not the 4-digit PIN. If you have a Surface Laptop 2, Surface Pro 5, 6, or 7 (or any other Surface with an eMMC chip instead of an SSD), we charge an up-front/non-refundable $75 “chip removal fee.” This fee is non-refundable even if the recovery fails and is in addition to our $300 base rate (and possible $100 encryption fee).

Our base $300 rate applies to all phones (+$100 if your phone is encrypted; most modern phones are encrypted). This includes physical repairs for logic boards, screens, and batteries. If chip-off recovery is necessary, we charge $75 to remove the phone’s data chip. This $75 fee is due up-front and is non-refundable even if the recovery is unsuccessful.

We can’t perform chip-off recoveries on modern phones due to unbreakable encryption. But, some older models may be recoverable (Note 7 and earlier, Samsung S6 and earlier, iPhone 3G and earlier; any device with Android OS version 6 and above is likely not recoverable). Submit a Chances Form to determine if your phone model may be recoverable.

If we can't recover your phone in-house, we'll offer to send it to a phone repair specialist. They offer a special discounted rate for our customers (which is still less expensive than anywhere else).

We charge an additional $75 for providing a clone (plus the cost of a SATA drive if buying from us).

Providing a “clone” of your failed device may be possible, but there are some issues with “cloning” a drive and trying to boot back up from it when done:

1) Even if we clone 100% of the sectors, the partition may be corrupt, and if so, the clone won’t boot up the computer.

2) Installed Applications are sometimes registered/linked to the original hard drive’s serial number. After cloning to a new drive, Applications that require a serial number will likely need to be re-registered to work again.

3) If you are on a Windows machine, the computer may not boot from the new hard drive even if we clone 100% of the sectors and the partition isn’t corrupt. Although a PC tech may be able to fix this problem, we do not offer any kind of support for getting the “clone” to work.

4) If you are on a Mac, then a 100% clone (assuming the partition isn’t corrupt) will likely boot back up, but again, Applications may need reinstalling. For Macs, if you want us to clone the drive, we recommend installing a new hard drive + operating system first, then using “Migration Assistant” to migrate the Applications + User Data back to the new drive. This is a cleaner and better solution in most cases (since you will be sure the OS is 100% intact and problem-free).

For these reasons, we always move the recovered “files” onto a “transfer drive.” If you also want us to clone your drive to a bare SATA drive, we can do it, but we offer no support or guarantee the drive will boot up the computer or the Applications will work. If the clone doesn’t boot up the computer, you’ll still have access to all the recovered files via the “transfer drive” when connected to a working computer.

We use special hardware and software to image 3.5″ and 5.25" floppy disks. We charge $150 per disk if we can image 99% or more. If we can image less than 99%, you may decline the recovery for a $75 labor fee. If we can’t image any sectors, there is no charge.

Bare hard drive; less than or equal to 2TB: $300.

Bare hard drive; larger than 2TB: $400 (this drive is larger than 2TB).

Bare hard drive; larger than 8TB: $500 (this drive is larger than 8tb).

Bare hard drive; larger than 2TB, with BitLocker encryption: $500 (this drive is larger than 2TB and encrypted).

Western Digital “My Passport” 1TB: $500 (this drive has a USB PCB and is encrypted with Western Digital’s Smartware).

Western Digital “My Book” 2TB: $400 (this drive is encrypted with Western Digital’s Smartware).

Western Digital “My Book” 3TB: $500 (this drive is encrypted with Western Digital’s Smartware and larger than 2TB).

Western Digital “My Book Duo” 6TB: $800 (this is a RAID with 2x 3TB drives; larger than 2TB).

Western Digital “My Passport” 4TB: $500 (this drive is larger than 2TB, has a USB PCB, and is “SED” encrypted; but our max rate for any single drive is $500 — excluding donor parts, if applicable).

Seagate “Expansion” 1TB: $300.

Seagate “Expansion” 3TB: $400 (this drive is larger than 2TB).

Seagate “Backup Plus” 1TB: $300.

G-Technology G-RAID 4TB: $600 (this is a RAID with 2x 2TB drives)

G-Technology “G-RAID 8TB“: $800 (this is a RAID with 2x 4TB drives; larger than 2TB)

Samsung T7 Portable SSD (1TB): $400-$500 (this SSD has a USB PCB) and has the option to password-protect using Samsung’s encryption software (encryption fee).

Samsung T9 Portable SSD (8TB): $500 (this SSD has a USB PCB and is larger than 2TB).

See examples of RAID data recovery prices.