The time frame for recovery is generally 5-10 business days for physical issues and 2-4 days for logical issues. Sometimes if components are not readily available, then it may take weeks to complete recovery. Some firms offer expedite service and you definitely pay for this added attention.

What About Data Recovery Software

This is one area where you really do get what you pay for. Try to stay away from software in $20-$60 range, since these utilities are generally very limited in what they can do. Also make sure that you NEVER and just to emphasize, NEVER EVER get data recovery software that writes anything at all to damaged disk. You run risk of overwriting data that may otherwise have been recoverable, but will be lost forever. If you are fairly computer savvy, then there are a few good data recovery software solutions available.

What To Look For When Shopping For Data Recovery

There’s an old saying, “you get what you pay for.” In most cases this is true. However, just because a company with a fancy website quotes you $3,500 for data recovery, does not mean that they are any better than a company that quotes you $1,500. Also, try to stay away from companies that want to charge $50-$300 for evaluating your drive. There has been a movement in data recovery industry over last couple of years to offer a number of free services. Most reputable data recovery companies will evaluate standard IDE drives free of charge; so don’t let word “free” this or “free” that stop you. The data recovery market is quickly becoming saturated, and a company does not necessarily cheapen itself or lack expertise by offering free evaluations.

You will find as you shop around for data recovery that prices vary greatly. You will get quotes that range from $300 to $5,000 for standard hard drive recoveries. It’s not uncommon to literally get quotes that have at least a $1,500 high/low spread. We shopped one prominent data recovery company where we gave them specific indicators of a physical hard drive failure. We were eventually quoted a price range of $600 to $2,900 for recovery. Many times this is a bait and switch type tactic. They get you to send in drive with low-end $600 price, then they let you know it’s going to cost $2,100 for recovery. You end up being well under $2,900 high-end price, but well over what other reputable companies would charge. Since most customers won’t go through pain of having drive sent back, only to have to send it out to another company, these bait and switch companies end up making huge profits off of unsuspecting customers.

Try to find a company that will give you an up front cost for either a logical or physical recovery. Most companies will be able to tell you within a couple hundred dollars cost of a recovery. However, don’t misunderstand a company that gives you a price for two different procedures. For example, some companies will give you a price if failure is logical and a price if problem ends up being physical. We called one firm and were told that if drive had a logical failure price would be $400 and if it ended up being a physical issue price would be $1,600. This is not a high/low spread as mentioned in earlier example, this is simply quoting a price for two different types of recoveries.

On average you can expect to pay anywhere from $400 to $600 for logical recoveries, and $1,200 to $2,000 for physical recoveries on standard IDE hard drives. If you have RAID drives, SCSI, etc. depending on configuration prices can be as high as $15,000. Remember, backup backup backup backup backup!!

Can My Data Be Recovered?

In most cases answer to this question is yes. On average, success rate for data recovery professionals is about 75-85%. However, there are times when data is just lost, either due to extensive damage to platter or unavailability of replacement parts.

How Do I Get Started?

If you have a hard drive that has crashed, most important thing you can do is contact a data recovery professional immediately. Make sure you aren’t being charged an evaluation fee if you have a standard IDE hard drive. Most companies only charge evaluation fees for complex RAID and network server drives.

You will find links to various data recovery firms on this page. We do not support or endorse any of them, but they are listed for your convenience. It is important to do your homework, call and talk with companies. When you find one that you feel comfortable with, give them a chance. Your hardest job, may be finding data recovery firms that actually have someone available to answer phones. Ask questions and be sure to have following information available:

Size of drive Operating system (i.e. Windows 98, Windows XP, etc.) Situation of failure (what happened just before drive stopped working) Is drive recognized by computer's BIOS or not Good luck in getting your data recovered, and make sure you always backup your important information on a daily basis. For more information visit: http://www.acsdata.com