It is impossible to put a price on DATA LOSS for the individual or a Business.
Data Recovery explained
When we refer to Data Recovery on this page, we are assuming it is a Hard Drive (from a Desktop PC, Server or Laptop), but we can offer Data Recovery for USB Memory Sticks, SD Drives, faulty CD/DVD media, etc. But, for the purpose of our article, we are referring to normal 3.5in or 2.5in Hard Drives.
We see Data Recovery on 3 main levels:
- LEVEL 1 - Simple recovery from reformatted drives, damaged boot records, etc
- LEVEL 2 - Hard Drive physical repair and recovery (for clicking drives etc)
- LEVEL 3 - Full magnetic media/platen recovery (offered by specialist companies, at very high costs)
Comspec can offer Level 1 and Level 2 Data Recovery in-house, and we charge normal rates for this work. Our success rate is 80% on all we have worked on so far (since 2006). Level 3 Data Recovery is very expensive, but we can advise on this once we have performed the inital diagnosis and tried to recover data. We will provide free advice and recommend some reputable specialists if we cannot recover the data required, all free of charge.
Why might you need Data Recovery?
- Physical Hard Drive failure
- Virus attack
- Disk formatting
- Data/Media Corruption
- Lost Password
- Power cuts/surges
- Heavy-handed file deletion
Unfortunately backups are not always up to date, hard drives are not always reliable, and some computer suppliers refuse to spend the extra few pounds it takes to ensure a quality Hard Drive is used in their computer. We at Comspec Computer Services always use the brands we find to be the best quality in our Custom Built Computers (we only use Western Digital or Seagate Barracuda drives nowadays, finding them to be the most reliable).
All of us, as computer users, are guilty of storing important documents, pictures and data on our computers without giving consideration to what would happen if we damaged it, or something disasterous happened. That's where we come in...we will remove the offending Hard Drive from your desktop or laptop computer and recover your data, supplying it back to you on DVD or Internal/External Hard Drives.
What do we offer?
- No Recovery - No Fee - No Small Print
- Full/Partial data recovery
- Supply of recovered data on useable media (Int/Ext Hard Drive, Memory Stick, DVD, etc)
- Free advice on a suitable backup method for the future
How does it all work?
- You send us your faulty Hard Drive, Memory Pen, SD Disk, etc
- We diagnose the fault and attempt recovery
- We perform various levels of recovery, dependent upon the fault diagnosis
- We contact you to let you know the results and to arrange the safe return of your data
- We then provide Support free of charge, on backup options, data recovery specialists (should this be required)
- We only charge if we are successful in recovering your Data, so you have nothing to lose
Important Notes:
- If your Hard Drive is making a clicking or grinding sound, please turn the machine off immediately. This can cause serious physical damage, and the longer you leave it running, the more damage will occur.
- If you cannot extract the Hard Drive from your computer, we will happily take the full laptop or PC Tower instead, and remove the disk as we need to.
- Try to BACKUP your data as often as you can. If you need help with a backup routine, please Contact Us.
- Data Recovery can be a slow process, so expect our initial diagnosis/recovery to take anything from 3 working days.
How much is this service?
Your cost will be dependent upon your situation, but the following is the normal costs you should consider:
- Data Recovery itself is £99 regardless of the amount of data
- Level 2 recovery requires a new Hard Drive to be purchased, we charge this at cost (ie no markup on disk price)
- If you have a large amount of data, you may need this supplied on a new internal Hard Drive or an External, we will also charge this at cost.
- DVD's etc are provided free of charge (up to a maximum of 4, thereafter these cost £1 each).
- Please feel free to send us your disk and ask for a price for Data Recovery. This diagnosis and testing will cost you nothing.
Some situations we have encountered lately include:
- Hard Drive failure with 7 years of photographs of a child from birth. The only copy of these photographs was on the faulty drive. We recovered everything within 3 days, much to the parents delight. Total cost to client was £99 (the photos were sent back on 4 DVDs for free).
- A local soldier, on a break from tours in Afghanistan, brought us a laptop with loads of photographs, video clips and personal correspondence, but it had been damaged in an active firefight. The laptop was well beyond repair, but we were able to recover 100% of the required data within 3 days, just in time for the soldier to take back to active service. Total cost to client £115 (£99 recovery and £16 for a USB Memory pen)
- A disgruntled former employee of a business had wiped 6 months of email history from MS Outlook prior to leaving their post. We were able to recover over 3000 emails within 2 days, even though these had been firstly put into the 'Deleted Items' folder, then physically removed from there also. Total cost to client £99.
- A business customer brought us a laptop he had accidentally reformatted (he had a problem with his Operating System and made a critically bad judgement on how to repair). This latop had over 1000 product pictures he had taken in his job. These pictures were of damaged engineering equipment, and specific parts/components needed for specific tasks. All in all, it would have been impossible to replace these pictures. We were able to recover 100% of the photographs (we actually recovered over 70,000 images, but the vast majority of these were temporary internet thumbnails, which we weeded out based on their image size). Total cost to client £99.
028 2826 8100