Data Recovery Prices: How Much Should My Data Recovery Cost?

1. They charge by the hour.
2. They have hidden fees, try to charge you for moving the data to recovery media
3. Charge you by the size of the recovered data.
4. They will give you a very low data recovery price to get you to send in the drive, and once they have it raise the price triple or more.

SERT is transparent about what is needed to recover your data, explaining your situation, and puts you “in the know” throughout the whole process.

SERT’s data recovery service price list is based on three common factors:

1. Storage capacity of the hard drive
2. Symptoms of the drive
3. What parts are required to rebuild the drive (when necessary)
4. Quantity of hard drives (when more than one ie. RAIDs)
5. Configuration of the drives (RAID arrays)
6. Previous attempts to recover the data
7. Desired turn around time

All of these 7 points will change the amount of labor, bench time, clean room time, and actual money we must invest in your data before we can even determine if the files are recoverable. Remember, we do not get paid the recovery fee unless we recover your files.

While there are many sizes of drives, pretty much every recovery case falls into one, of two categories.

1. Software Level – This applies when a drive is able to be imaged on our hardware level imager (no software, Windows, Linux, Apple) and has minimal bad sectors, and images in a n appropriate amount of time. A 2TB hard drive in good shape but wont recognized on computer should take about a day to get a bit level image of that drive on our hardware. Every quality data recovery service has basically the same advanced equipment.
2. Hardware Level – This applies when the drive will not initialize on our imaging hardware. It Includes: firmware level problems/corruption/damage that must be temporarily repaired first, too many bad sectors causing imaging to take more time than normal, major file system damage. It also includes mechanical repairs, where physical parts of the drive have failed and must be repaired/replaced including: PCB, Read Write Head Failure, Frozen Spindle/Motor (cost of donor parts not included in recovery fee), etc.
3. If a case requires parts, those are always additional, paid up front, and non refundable.
4. When it comes down to data recovery fees, the reality is your files are only worth what they are worth to you. We get it.
5. At some point, data recovery prices may be more than what it will cost you to live without the files, or recreate them.
6. We understand your position, and do our best to give you the most secure, transparent, and reasonably priced estimate for recovering your files.

1. Do I have to pay SERT upfront?

Only applicable evaluation fees. For clients within the US, we will create a prepaid shipping label for you so you can send your device to us.

2. I don’t want my drive repaired I only want my files back.

In some cases where the device has a serious problem, we may have to temporarily repair it (which may include replacing parts) so the drive will work properly. Many times we have to do this first, before we can determine if your files are recoverable.

• We don’t repair your drive and send it back to you.
• When a drive fails you never want to trust it again.
• We don’t repair drives and send them back so you can move the files on to another device yourself.
• When you receive your drive, you will receive it in the same condition you sent it to us in with your data on a different working drive.

3. We are committed to the final price for recovering your data!

Once you make a commitment to a final price, we invest the time to get the job done before you even pay a dime. You only pay after we recover your data, right before we give it back.