Pricing – Us

Pre-determined; Flat rates
We only have three prices for data recovery: $300, $400, and $500 (not including donor parts, if necessary). We disclose all pricing info on our website and have no hidden fees. Before sending us your drive, use our Rate Calculator to determine your out-the-door cost. Or, submit our Chances Form, and we’ll reply with a fixed-price quote (along with an estimate of the likelihood your data can be recovered and the average donor drive cost for your model drive). 

Pricing – Them

Diagnose-then-quote; Range of rates
Other companies often use a diagnose-then-quote approach, charging a labor fee if the recovery is unsuccessful and providing a range of prices (e.g., $1200-$3800) rather than a flat fee. These quotes are often based on your data’s perceived value and willingness to pay, rather than the specific issue with the drive. Some companies even charge for the diagnosis itself.”

Honesty – Us

Accurate Diagnosis
Our accurate diagnoses are made possible by our flat-fee pricing, which is not based on the specific issue with your drive. There is no incentive for us to say your drive has “bad heads” when we charge the same price even if a head swap is necessary. If donor parts are needed, we charge the exact price we pay and provide a link to the specific drive.

Realistic Expectations
Our success rate is ~80%. But, some specific hard drive models are significantly more or less likely to be recovered. For example, 3.5″ Seagate 3TB “DM” drives often have unrecoverable platter damage, so the chances of success for this model will be lower than a 2.5″ Fujitsu 250GB drive. Severe platter damage causes at least 5-10% of all failed drives to be unrecoverable. By providing our customers with a customized recoverability estimate using our “Chances Form,” we provide realistic expectations of their likelihood of a successful recovery.

Honesty – Them

Biased Diagnosis
Other companies may give biased diagnoses to justify higher prices. They may intentionally misdiagnose your device and overcharge for unnecessary repairs, as evidenced by the drives we receive from customers who were initially told their heads were bad but were actually in good condition. These companies may also fail to accurately identify the true issue with the drive, such as a bad PCB or firmware corruption.

Fanciful Expectations
Other companies advertise a “98%+ success rate.” In reality, the single issue of “platter damage” makes this is an impossible number to achieve. At least 5% of all hard drives we receive are entirely unrecoverable due to signification platter damage. But, other issues can make a drive unrecoverable (firmware corruption, bad/lost ROM chip, file corruption, encryption failures, etc.), so even an 85% success rate is highly unlikely for any data recovery company to actualize. 

Sales Tactics – Us

Tell it like it is
Besides responding to e-mails, we never contact a potential customer to “sell” our data recovery services. We’ll never cold-call you or send you an e-mail that you didn’t first initiate. We tell potential customers the price and likelihood of a successful recovery, and let them decide if we are the company they should choose. We have no sales department!

Sales Tactics – Them

Pushy / Aggressive
Other companies may use aggressive sales tactics, such as cold-calling or sending unsolicited emails, and have dedicated sales and marketing teams for this purpose. They may also request personal information, such as your name, phone number, and mailing address, before providing a price quote, even if you have not yet decided to use their services. If you don’t choose their company or respond to their quote, they may continue to contact you regularly.

Abilities – Us

All Recoveries Performed In-house
We are a full-service data recovery company and perform all repairs in-house. This includes head swaps, platter swaps, firmware corruption, and even manually rebuilding failed RAID arrays. In the rare event that we can’t provide the type of repair your drive requires, or if we attempted a recovery but were unable to recover any data, we may provide you with a recommendation of what company to try next. 

Abilities – Them

Send Your Drive Elsewhere
Other companies have dozens of “local” retail store-fronts or office spaces in various cities. Once they receive your drive, they ship it to their “big lab” in another state. Even worse, some companies have no “big lab” and only send your drive to another data recovery company and up-sell their services. Other data recovery companies use us for this exact purpose — and it makes sense because we charge so much less than them and provide the same or better results.

Size – Us

Small Team of 5
We are a tiny 5-person company. Emely and Marina handle most customer communications, shipping/receiving, and payments. Brian, owner/lead technician, will be the primary technician working on your recovery. If your drive needs “clean room” repairs, our clean room technician, Tim, will help. After your failed device has been imaged to one of our good drives, Edgar will move the data to your Transfer Drive. You always know who is working on your drive, and you can communicate directly with them via email. 

Size – Them

Dozens to Hundreds of Employees
Many data recovery companies have dozens of employees. The biggest and most well-known ones have over 100 employees. You cannot know who is working on your device at any given time. Is it a new employee? Is it someone you can trust? Do they have the knowledge of a veteran data recovery technician? You’ll never know because large companies do not share this information. Direct communication with a technician at a larger company is almost always forbidden.

Communication – Us

Timely Updates
We provide our customers with e-mail and SMS updates on every step of our recovery process. Most of our customers receive at least five e-mails from us throughout the recovery process (typically around 5-7 business days). That’s almost one e-mail every day. And we write to our customers in plain English, not technical data recovery jargon. Don’t like e-mail? We also have a chat widget on our website and are available by phone during business hours (weekdays, 10 AM-6 PM PST).

Communication – Them

You Call Them
After receiving your device, other companies may have long delays in communication and updates on the status of your recovery, especially if they are shipping your drive to another location for repairs. Even if all repairs are performed in-house, some companies may have difficulty adequately explaining the issue and status of the recovery.