How is the service price determined?

Our Answer:

The over-simplified, short description is simple enough:  our recovery engineers estimate the amount of labor time the given case will require for completion, and add to that a determination about costs for proprietary replacement parts that may be needed.  It is surprising to some people that the cost for performing data recovery has absolutely no relation whatsoever to the value placed upon that data by its owner.

Data recovery is quite labor intensive, requiring the focused attention of individuals both highly skilled and expertly knowledgeable who possess a high level of competence.  This expertise is acquired through years of not only electronic, but also mechanical engineering training, both initial and ongoing, intimate knowledge of hard disk drive and other data storage peripheral equipment technology, and hands-on real-life apprenticeship.  All of this takes place in a fully equipped facility including a Class-100 cleanroom, complete with the appropriate high-technology instrumentation.  These realities mean that truly competent data recovery service, the implementation of proper procedures to preclude further, unnecessary damage to delicate magnetic data recordings which are usually already in a degraded state, cannot be obtained cheaply by means of a low-cost service.  The decision falls to you to select a service that will not place your valuable information in the way of further harm.

In practical, more visual terms, data recovery processes often involve drive disassembly, R/W head-slider "needle" replacement, manual intervention in drive operation (to prevent further media damage with a malfunctioning drive), and platter migration.  Impossible to visualize are the hours of expert knowhow and artistry needed to rescue data lost when what is today a relatively low cost electro-mechanical computer memory device gives up the ghost.