Data Recovery

One of the first questions we get asked by most customers is “How long will the recovery take?”.   Unfortunately there is no clear cut answer to that question, as each case is different.  Here are some factors to consider that affect the overall timeline of the data recovery.

1. Hardware Condition – A drive that is fully functional is much faster to recover data from than one that is severely damaged and must be repaired.  So cases that are simply related to accidental deletion, format, viruses, etc. are generally pretty quick on the turnaround.  Usually within 48 hours for most cases, however there are times when it takes longer.  Drives needing hardware recovery generally take about 7 to 10 days, but can take longer based on other factors below.
2. Drive Size – Even if the drive is fully functional a 4Tb drive will take as much as 20 hours to scan, and a recovery may involve several scans.  Also, as a precaution, we always clone the data first to prevent any possibility of accidents while working with the data.  Expect an extra day for drives larger than 500Gb or a few days for drives larger than 2Tb.
3. Availability of Donor Parts – For drives with hardware issues, parts are often needed to repair the drive to a semi-functional condition where the data can be successfully extracted.  Some hard drive sub-models are very common and easy to find the parts from one of our vendors.  However others are not.  At times we may even have to spend weeks searching online and calling other data recovery labs for the specific drive or parts we need.  Or we may even have to buy a donor drive from overseas and wait for it to arrive.  Usually this is the longest part of the whole process for hardware level recoveries.
4. Functionality of Drive After Repair – Many makes of hard drives don’t take kindly to replacement parts, and don’t function anywhere near their full potential after an internal repair.  As drives write magnetic data on a microscopic level, even the slightest micro variation (or micro jog) in manufacturing of parts may cause the drive to constantly have to re-read data over and over.  While rare, some drives can take a month or more to extract all the data after such internal repairs.
5. Service Type – Customers who need expedited or emergency services pay a bit more for our services, however they also get priority service.  If you order expedited service ($150 extra) your project will be bumped to the front of the line and worked on before all other projects.  However the work is still performed during normal business hours.  If that isn’t fast enough you can order emergency service (quoted base on expected overtime) and we work through the night, and over weekend to finish the project as fast as possible.

You may have seen websites online advertising something like a 99% success rate, but in reality those numbers are impossible.  Approximately 10-15% of all hard drives that have failed will never be recoverable by any technology current or future.  At times hard drives fail in such a way that the data contained on the platters (disks) is simply sanded off and no longer exists.  Newer high density drives (especially Seagate) are even more susceptible to this type of failure.

Many companies try to artificially inflate their success rate by quoting extremely high prices for projects they expect to fail, knowing that the customer is going to decline the quote and they won’t even have to attempt recovery.  Thus keeping their impossibly high data recovery statistics up.  Here at Data Medics, we don’t play those games.  Upon successful evaluation of the media, we’ll provide a quote along with a realistic evaluation of the chances of a successful recovery.

Upon completion of the recovery, you are welcome to provide your own return media.  For hard drives, the would generally be an external hard drive.  Or, if you’d prefer you can purchase a new external hard drive from us at a competitive price and we’ll copy the data to that.

In some cases the amount of data is very small, such as when recovering from thumb drives, CDs, DVDs, flash cards, etc.  In these cases, we can simply put the data onto our secure, high speed, server for you to be able to log in and download your data.

If we are unable to recover a substantial portion of the data (70% or more of the files) you will not be billed for our efforts to recover the data.  The only cost you might be out is the price of parts needed to attempt the repair and recovery which are specific to your hard drive.  However these costs will be itemized and explained at the time you receive the quote.

In some cases where the recovery is very partial, you will be given opportunity to preview the data to see if any necessary data has been successfully recovered.  You will then have the option to accept the recovered data and pay the quote, or decline and call it a loss.

All evaluations are performed at no cost or obligation to the customer.  If after you are quoted you determine that the cost is too high, you are free to take your media back and will not be charged a single penny.  If this happens, please hold on to your media as you may later discover that there was more lost data than you initially realized.  We often are very busy during income tax season when customers suddenly realize they need last years tax documents for their filing this year.