Questions people ask before they call us.

Our US prices are fixed and published: mechanical hard drive recovery (clicking, not spinning, dropped, not detected) is $2,500 USD; SSD and NVMe recovery is $1,500 USD; flash media (USB, SD, microSD) is $1,500 USD; phone recovery is $2,500 USD. RAID, NAS and server cases are US$450 per drive to assess and then quoted. Digital forensics is quoted after assessment. Prices include the donor parts and UPS Express shipping. Full price list.

Yes. The assessment fee is US$450 per device, paid before an engineer opens and diagnoses the drive. If you go ahead with the recovery, the full US$450 is credited against the recovery price, so a $2,500 hard drive recovery costs $2,500 in total, not $2,950. If you decide not to proceed, the assessment fee is not refunded (Terms, Section 4).

The donor drive or parts needed for the recovery (used for head transplants and to repair the damaged drive), the cleanroom work, and UPS Express shipping. If you want your data on a new drive, we supply one and its cost is on your quote; it is not included in the recovery price.

Because a failed drive usually needs a matched donor part, a head transplant in a cleanroom, firmware repair and imaging on specialist equipment before a single file can be read. Most drives that reach a lab have already been through software and DIY attempts, so what arrives is almost always a mechanical failure. That is why we publish one price for it instead of quoting a low number and adding fees later.

Ask yourself one question: can the files be recreated? Photos of someone who's gone, a wedding, a child's first year, five years of your own creative work, no. A thesis, only by starting over. For irreplaceable data, the cost of recovery is almost always less than the cost of losing it forever.

Because a lower headline price and a lower final invoice are two different things. Published pricing in this industry is usually banded, with a low number for a healthy drive and a top band written as “from” or with a plus sign for mechanical work. A clicking drive is always the top band. Our $2,500 includes the donor drive and shipping. Bring the other quote when you call and an engineer will tell you honestly whether it covers your case.

Yes. Priority / Emergency Service is US$500 per case, added to the recovery price. Your device moves to the front of our queue and is worked on continuously, including nights and weekends. The fee pays for priority, not for the outcome, so it is non-refundable (Terms, Section 6.7).

Assessment is US$450 per drive in the array (a four-drive NAS is US$1,800 to assess). After assessment you receive a written quote. The assessment fees are credited in full if you proceed.

On a Guaranteed Case, if we recover less than 1 MB of your data in readable form, the recovery fee is refunded in full. Once 1 MB or more is recovered, the recovery is successful and the fee is earned. The US$450 assessment fee and any emergency fee are not refundable. Your written quote tells you whether your case is Guaranteed before you pay (Terms, Section 7).

Forensic cases, encrypted devices, custom XOR or controller programming, fire-damaged devices, hard drives previously opened by someone else, mobile phones and tablets, and certain end-of-life drive models (all Maxtor, Quantum Fireball, and four HGST models). These are Non-Guaranteed Cases and are non-refundable once work begins (Section 7.2).

A partial recovery of 1 MB or more counts as a successful recovery. You receive a full file listing showing what was recovered. Recovered data cannot be declined in exchange for a refund.

You can cancel before the assessment starts and get the US$450 back. After the assessment, if you do not approve the quote, nothing more is charged. If you cancel after approving the quote but before the recovery fee is paid in full, nothing more is charged and any part payment is refunded. Recovery work begins as soon as the recovery fee is paid, so from that moment the recovery fee is non-refundable, except under the No Data, No Charge guarantee for Guaranteed Cases. The full table is in our Refund and Cancellation Policy.

1. Call 1-888-749-3786 and an engineer tells you what to expect. 2. Sign the work order and pay the US$450 assessment invoice. 3. Ship your drive to our lab with free UPS Express. 4. An engineer diagnoses the failure and sends a written quote stating the price and whether your case is Guaranteed. 5. You approve the quote and pay the balance (the US$450 is already credited). 6. We recover your data and deliver it as stated on your quote.

Typically about two to three weeks from the start of work. Emergency Service moves your case to the front of the queue. Fire-damaged devices typically take 14 to 30 business days. All turnaround times are estimates.

No. After a successful recovery the original drive is securely destroyed within 48 hours of your data being delivered, and donor parts are never returned. If you decline the quote or less than 1 MB is recovered, you can collect the drive or pay for its return (Section 11).

By secure download link, or on a new drive we supply (its cost is shown on your quote and is not included in the recovery price), shipped by UPS or collected from the lab.

Only until it reaches you. We permanently delete our copy within 48 hours of confirmed delivery, collection or issue of a download link, so check your data as soon as it arrives.

After you sign the work order we send an invoice. Card payments are accepted up to US$4,500 per transaction on a secure payment page; any amount above that is paid by wire transfer or ACH. The assessment fee is one card transaction. Work starts when the full balance has been received. All prices are in US dollars.

Yes. You enter your card details directly on the payment page, which is run by a PCI DSS-compliant payment processor. Data Recovery Group never receives or stores your full card number.

Yes. We serve all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Every case is shipped to our lab by free UPS Express, so the price and service are the same wherever you are. Find your state in the list below.

Our lab is at 1309 Coffeen Ave, Ste 1200, Sheridan, Wyoming. Every drive is recovered there by our own engineers on our own equipment. Data recovered in the US stays in the US.

Yes. Engineers access data only as far as needed to recover and verify it. Non-disclosure agreements and chain-of-custody documentation are available and must be arranged before you ship.

Turn it off and leave it off. A clicking drive usually has failed read/write heads, and every power-on can scrape the platters and make recovery harder. Do not run recovery software or open the drive. Call 1-888-749-3786.

Only if the drive is healthy and you deleted files by mistake. If the drive clicks, beeps, is not detected, was dropped or got wet, software cannot fix it and running it can cause more damage.

Yes. SSD and NVMe recovery (M.2, SATA and PCIe) is $1,500 USD, including controller and firmware failures.

We recover encrypted data in its encrypted state. You decrypt it with your own password or recovery key. Encrypted cases are Non-Guaranteed.

Yes. Phone recovery is $2,500 USD. Phone cases are Non-Guaranteed and non-refundable once work begins.

Yes, including chain-of-custody documentation and written reports. Forensic cases are quoted after assessment and are not covered by No Data, No Charge.