*Price shown does not include the cost of a “donor drive” (necessary for around 25% of hard drive recoveries) because prices vary depending on model and availability. Submit our Chances Form to get a more detailed price quote, including the average cost of a donor drive for your model hard drive.
Our rates are pre-determined and agreed upon before we start working on your data recovery. There will be no surprises when your recovery is finished and it’s time to pay the bill.
Is the drive larger than 2TB? Is the drive “encrypted“? And does the drive have a USB port built into the PCB instead of the typical SATA or IDE PCB?
*Drive is larger than 2TB
*Drive is encrypted
*Drive has USB port built into PCB
*Drive is larger than 2TB
*Drive is encrypted
*Drive has USB port built into PCB
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 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)
All our transfer drives are brand new, name brand (usually Seagate, but could be Hitachi, Toshiba, Samsung, or Western Digital), 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):
DESKTOP USB 3 HARD DRIVES (these drives are powered using a power adapter/wall outlet):
Larger drives are available upon request.
Transfer drive prices do not include sales tax (for CA residents only).
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 you have an encrypted hard drive, there is an extra $100 fee if we can recover your data. Any encrypted hard drive is more difficult and time-consuming to diagnose and recover. Some examples of encryption include:
Other data recovery companies charge $500-$2000 extra for encrypted hard drives.
If you have a portable external hard drive with a USB port built-in to the PCB, 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” hard drive, as it does not have the standard “SATA” or “IDE” interface on the PCB.
You can use the pictures below to determine if your hard drive has a USB PCB (you need to remove the hard drive from the enclosure to see the PCB). Send us a picture of your hard drive if you need help identifying your PCB.
“SATA” PCB
“IDE” PCB
“USB PCB”
Other data recovery companies charge $300-$800 extra for USB PCBs.
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.
If you have an iBook, PowerBook, old MacBook Pro, and certain PC laptops which 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 — removed from the computer/enclosure.
We save our customers thousands of dollars with our RAID data recovery services because our data recovery prices are less than 1/4 what 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:
No charge if your data can’t be recovered.
Most data recovery companies start at $3500 for a 5-drive RAID.
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 the cover has been opened. 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.
Note: the “cover” is not the same as the “enclosure.” If you have an external hard drive and just removed the plastic enclosure, there is no extra fee.
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:
The head screw was removed and put back through the hard drive’s label.
The platter screw was removed in the center of the label and the head swap below.
The head screws were removed and put back through the hard drive’s label.
The head screw was removed and put back through the hard drive’s label.
The first data recovery company put a sticker over the exposed screw.
The first data recovery company put a sticker over the exposed screw.
Several silver stickers that cover the screws have been removed.
The label has been peeled up along with the silver sticker covering the screw.
The entire label is missing so we assume the cover has been opened.
The first data recovery company put a sticker over the exposed screw.
After your data recovery is finished (successful or not), you’ll have 14 days to pay for the recovery (or just for shipping back if recovery was unsuccessful). After 14 days, there is a $10 per week storage fee to retain your hard drives and accessories. Due to our limited storage capacity, after 60 days of non-payment, your drive(s) and accessories become the property of $300 Data Recovery and will be recycled or destroyed.
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.
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 “deleted files” or “format” recoveries unless we need to clone the drive (i.e., it has bad sectors or firmware corruption).
We’ll refund the recovery cost (minus a $100 labor fee) if no working files can be recovered.
We only recommend using a transfer drive for saving the recovered data on a format/erased file recoveries. Although it’s possible to move the recovered data back to the original hard drive, this is not advisable since further recovery attempts would be impossible.
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 not willing to cover the cost of a donor drive.
Please see the Donor Drive section of our FAQ for more information about donor drives.
We charge $25 for “hard drive destruction services” if you wish to have your device completely destroyed to prevent future access to your data. Learn more about our hard drive destruction services.
For a Microsoft Surface Tablet or Laptop, the cost will be $300, plus $100 if you encrypted your Surface 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 also 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 $100 encryption fee).
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 not successful.
We use special hardware and software for imaging 3.5″ floppy disks. We charge $150 per disk if we can image 99% or more. If less than 99%, you may decline the recovery for a $75 labor fee. If we can’t image any sectors, there is no charge.
Our base $300 rate applies to all phones. But, 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 not successful. 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 find out if your phone model may be recoverable.
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. We charge an additional $75 for providing a clone (plus the cost of a SATA drive if buying from us). 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, even if we clone 100% of the sectors and the partition isn’t corrupt, the computer may not boot from the new hard drive. 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 to be reinstalled. 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). It’s for these reasons that we always move the recovered “files” onto a “transfer drive.” If you also want to have us clone your drive to a bare SATA drive, we can, but 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.
Can we recover your failed hard drive, SSD, flash drive, or RAID?
