When your hard drive fails to load, there will be two questions in your head – can I recover my data, and how much do data recovery services cost? In this guide we will take a look what factors affect prices for data recovery in 2020 and explore the balance between price and quality.
The answer to the first question is, in most cases, yes. Data recovery is usually perfectly possible, although this will depend on the type of hard drive and the failure it has experienced.
The question about the cost of hard drive recovery, however, requires a more complicated answer. There are many factors in play when determining the cost of recovering drives and files, and they all affect each other.
Let’s take a deeper look at what determines data recovery prices.
In the most budget-friendly case, the cost to recover a hard drive is zero. An experienced user that knows what they are doing will usually be able to get their data and files back for completely free using DIY tools and online guides. Even mechanical failures can be fixed for free with appropriate donor parts.
But trying to recover your data on your own carries great risks. Inexperienced or careless home repairs can easily lead to broken hard drives, erased files, and complete data loss.
A totally busted hard drive could make the data recovery price immeasurable. It’s all a question of how highly you prize all of your lost files. And if the now-dead drive also leads to broken RAID arrays, there might be some serious costs in real, hard cash.
For this reason, many people decide to turn to professional data recovery services when their drives fail. But despite the niche nature of the data recovery industry, there are dozens of data recovery companies out there that charge wildly varying prices.
The hard drive data recovery costs could go from a couple hundred to a couple thousand dollars just within one company. Some of them use shady pricing practices that prey on the less computer-savvy customers worried for their data.
Some of these companies will quote a very wide price range, for example from $100 to $2,500. Others might ask for high up-front fees before even taking a look at your hard drive.
However, the two most common unfeasible pricing policies data recovery companies use are per-gigabyte and flat-rate fees. Here are the reasons why neither of these approaches makes much sense, and why you should be wary of anyone trying to charge you based on them.
Per-Gigabyte Data Recovery Cost
Per-gigabyte data recovery pricing is exactly what it says – you will pay for every gigabyte of lost data the company recovers from your hard drive. That sounds sensible, doesn’t it?
On the surface, this might appear to be the situation. After all, the recovery cost for a smaller amount of data should be smaller. It’s just common sense, in theory.
However, when we think about it a bit more, a per-gigabyte fee to recover data starts to fall apart. Let’s imagine a scenario where a user has three hard drives, and each of them has experienced the exact same type of failure.
The only difference is that the first hard drive contains 150GB of movies, the second contains 2TB of sensitive business data, and the third contains 5GB of vacation photos.
Since they have failed in the same way, the time and effort it takes to recover the data will be identical. But since the user is being charged on a per-gigabyte basis, they will end up paying an astronomically higher price for the business drive when compared to the photo drive.
For these reasons, per-gigabyte hard drive recovery cost can end up making no sense for the customer or the company. If a company claiming to offer professional recovery services gives you a quote based on a per-gigabyte rate, it is a good idea to look elsewhere.
Flat-Rate Data Recovery Cost
Flat-rate fees are another common pricing approach taken by some data recovery firms. In this model, the cost of recovering hard drive data is always the same, despite the amount of data or the type of failure.
While flat rate pricing takes an almost completely opposite approach to data recovery prices when compared to per-gigabyte pricing, it is no less unprofessional. As already mentioned, hard drives can fail for any number of reasons. To fully recover your data can take much longer with some failure types than with others.
The data recovery industry is a small one, and as such the time of data recovery experts is precious. A flat-rate fee ignores this factor completely; the company will charge the same amount of money whether the recovery process takes one hour or 24 hours.
Since the data recovery engineers get paid the same, no matter how long their work takes, it is easy to understand that at some point their attention to detail might begin to slip. Companies charging flat-rate data recovery prices rarely provide the same quality with their services as those with more varying pricing policies.
But if per-gigabyte and flat-rate fees are both unrealistic for professional data recovery services, how do they determine their recovery fees?
Once more, a great many things are in play when a data recovery company sets the price for a data recovery case. Some of the most common considerations include:
- The type of hard drive failure and the extent of the damage.
- The storage capacity and type of the hard drive (SSD vs. HDD).
- Any and all already attempted data recovery methods.
- How quickly the customer needs their data.
- The cost of replacement parts and/or availability of donor parts.
- Configuration of the hard drives (e.g. RAID arrays).
These factors cover most of the considerations when it comes to estimating the price of hard drive data recovery. Nonetheless, there can still be other things that vary from case to case that may affect the pricing.
The take-away from all this, however, is fairly simple. Reliable and trustworthy data recovery firms will not simply give you a quote, but instead will offer an initial cost-free diagnostics service to determine a precise cost for your hard drive.
What TTR Data Recovery’s Prices Might Look Like
- Standard Service
- Rush Service
- Emergency Service
Each of these packages offers a different set of features and turnaround times, from 10-15 business days in the Standard service to ASAP delivery in the Emergency service. The price of the recovery service also depends on the chosen package, with Standard being the cheapest.
For all the reasons explored in this article, as a trusted and professional company, it is difficult for TTR to give an up-front estimate on the price of recovering data from your hard drive without knowing the exact issues. However, TTR offers a free diagnostic service to determine the steps needed to ensure full recovery of the data in each case.
Why Choose TTR Data Recovery?
Should you give TTR’s data recovery service a go, you can trust that your hard drives and files are in good hands. All TTR Recovery Technicians are IACRB Certified. Additionally, TTR holds full security and quality certificates, including ISO 9001 and SOC Type II.
TTR will send each customer a list of all recovered files before requesting payment, so you will see exactly what you will be paying for. TTR does not believe in hidden fees, per-gigabyte charges, or flat-rate fees. In fact, if you’re not satisfied with the recovered data, you can request for your media to be returned to you, free of charge.
The only time TTR might ask you for an up-front fee is in very special cases, for example with expedited services or in the case of a mechanically failed hard drive more than 2TB in size to cover the price of spare parts. Even in these cases, the fee will be credited towards your final payment, and will be refunded if your data is unrecoverable.
You may not even have to mail your media to TTR. In some situations, TTR technicians can attempt to recover your data across a secure Internet connection. No mailing fees, no delivery delays.
If you’d like to know more about TTR Data Recovery services or need to recover files from your hard drive, get in touch with an expert today. Remember, the diagnosis is free, and you now know exactly what to look for to be convinced that you’re getting a fair quote.
How Much Do Data Recovery Services Cost in 2020? published first on https://ttrdatarecovery.com/
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