How much does data recovery cost?

How much does data recovery cost? There is no single price. The cost depends on what failed, what kind of device it is, and how much work it takes to get your files back. So we look first and quote second.

Here’s how it works. The evaluation is free. Once we know what’s wrong, you get a fixed quote before any paid work starts. If you decline, you owe nothing for the evaluation. If you approve and we can’t recover the data you need, you don’t pay the recovery fee. No data, no charge.

That’s why this page has no price list. A deleted folder on a healthy laptop drive is not a six-disk RAID 6 with a failed rebuild. A menu that treats them the same is a guess. A fixed quote after an evaluation is not.

Hard drive recovery cost, SSD recovery cost and RAID recovery cost all come down to the same handful of factors. Here’s what each one means in plain words.

• Logical or physical failure. A logical failure means the hardware works but the data is hard to reach: deleted files, a formatted partition, a corrupted file system. A physical failure means the device itself is damaged: a clicking hard drive, a dead circuit board, an SSD that no longer shows up. Physical work takes more time, more tools and sometimes parts.
• Device type. A hard drive, an SSD or NVMe drive, a RAID array, a NAS and a server each need different work. A hard drive has moving parts. An SSD stores data in flash chips run by a controller, so a failed controller is a different problem from a failed motor. RAID and NAS jobs mean rebuilding the layout of the array before we can reach a single file.
• Number of disks. We clone every disk in an array before we do anything else. A two-disk mirror is less work than an eight-disk RAID 6. More disks means more imaging time and more reconstruction.
• Parts. A clicking drive usually has failed read/write heads. Fixing that means finding a matching donor drive and swapping the heads in our clean room. How easy the right donor is to find affects the quote.
• Urgency. Emergency handling is available when you need your data back as fast as possible. Urgency is one of the factors in the quote, and you’ll know it before you approve.
• What already happened to the device. Repeated power-ons, recovery software or a started rebuild can add damage. More damage means more work.

The steps are the same whether you bring in one laptop drive or a full server. Turnaround depends on the failure. Logical jobs usually take 24–48 hours. Physical jobs, like clicking drives or RAID arrays with failed members, usually take 3–7 days.

• You contact us. Fill in the form or call. Form enquiries get a reply within one business day.
• Free evaluation. The device comes to our recovery lab in Columbia, MD, where all recovery work happens. We find out what failed and what it will take to get your data back.
• Fixed quote. You get a fixed quote based on what we found, before any paid work starts.
• You approve or decline. Approve and we start. Decline and that’s the end of it. The evaluation was free.
• Recovery. We do the work in the lab, in our clean room for drives that need to be opened.
• You pay only if we recover the data you need. If we can’t get the files that matter to you, there’s no recovery fee.

When you don’t know the quote yet, it’s tempting to try a free fix first. Sometimes that’s fine. Often it’s the most expensive thing you can do, because it costs you the data.

Each extra write or spin-up can turn a recoverable job into a harder one, or an impossible one. A harder job takes longer and costs more. An impossible one costs you the data. If the drive is clicking, grinding or not showing up, or your array is degraded, power it down and call us before you try anything else. These are the usual mistakes:

• Powering it on again and again. A failing drive gets weaker every time it spins up. Damaged heads can scratch the platters, and then there may be nothing left to read.
• Running recovery software on a clicking drive. Software reads every sector, hard, for hours. On a drive with failing heads, that is the worst workload you can give it.
• Letting a RAID rebuild. A rebuild reads every remaining disk and writes a new one. If a second disk is weak, the rebuild is what takes the array down.
• Running chkdsk or a repair tool. These write to the disk to “fix” the file system. On a damaged volume they can overwrite the very records we need to find your files.
• Installing software on the same drive. It can land on top of the deleted files you want back.

Use the form on this page or call our 24/7 emergency line, (410) 937-7332.

The more you tell us up front, the faster we can evaluate the device and quote. Here’s what helps:

• The device. Hard drive, SSD, RAID, NAS or server, and the make or model if you know it. For an array, the number of disks and the RAID level.
• Symptoms. Clicking, not detected, very slow, a deleted folder, a failed rebuild.
• What you’ve already tried. Software, a rebuild, chkdsk, another shop. It changes how we approach the job, so be honest.
• How urgent it is, and which files matter most.

Shipping to our lab and back is free. Pickup is also available: call or use the form for details. You can also walk in to the Columbia lab at 10015 Old Columbia Rd, Suite B 215, Columbia, MD 21046, Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

DiskDoctor has been recovering data since 1991, with 15,000+ cases recovered, a 95% success rate and ISO 9001 certification. The evaluation is free, and you see a fixed quote before you commit to anything.

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