Ransomware Data Recovery

We recover data from drives others can't. Our rates vary by failure type: logical failures have very high recovery rates, firmware faults and single-head replacements are also highly successful, while multi-platter or severe damage cases are more challenging. We publish raw, anonymized outcomes so you can see the reality by device type and failure mode.

Hard drive data recovery typically costs $100 to $2,000+, depending on the failure type. Logical issues (file-system errors, minor bad sectors) range from $100 to $500. Firmware repairs (drive not detected, ROM corruption) cost $300 to $1,200. Mechanical repairs requiring clean-bench head swaps run $1,000 to $2,000. By comparison, corporate labs like DriveSavers typically charge $2,000 to $7,000 for similar work. Price is driven by three factors: the device (HDD vs SSD), the problem (logical vs mechanical), and the company's overhead (in-house lab vs outsourced middlemen with ad budgets). We do all work on-site in Austin using PC-3000 tools (manufactured by ACE Lab) and do not buy ads, which keeps our pricing at $300 to $1,500 for most jobs.

On a healthy 1 TB HDD, a full image reads in about 3-4 hours; with verification and copy-out, most standard jobs finish in 1-2 business days. Light bad sectors can add a few days. 'Not detected' or firmware issues often take around a week. Head swaps that require donor parts run 1-3 weeks. Severe platter damage can take weeks and may be unrecoverable.

No. SOC 2 audits cost $50,000+/year and get passed to customers as $3,000+ invoices. We invest in capability instead: PC-3000 tools, clean bench validation to 0.02 microns, encrypted storage, and chain-of-custody documentation. Need a BAA or NDA? We sign them daily. Your device never leaves our Austin lab; access is limited to your assigned technician; we securely purge working copies after delivery.

No; and that's a feature, not a bug. Being 'authorized' usually means agreeing to price minimums and sending complex work to third-party labs. Our reputation was built on being UNAUTHORIZED while fixing problems the 'authorized' shops couldn't. We do the work here, talk to you directly, and charge you for the work done; not for a logo on our wall.

Often, yes. If you DON'T power it on wet, DON'T bake it with heat, and get it to us quickly, success can be 70-80%. Salt water is worse than fresh; fire cases usually include corrosive residue from suppression. Once in-lab, we address PCB corrosion/shorts, transfer ROM/adaptives, and image with controlled timeouts.

Logical failure: the hardware works but the file system doesn't; deleted files, bad partition table, light bad sectors. Physical failure: the hardware is damaged; stuck heads, seized spindle, shorted PCB, platter scratches. Logical jobs are cheaper ($100-$500) with near-certain odds; physical jobs need clean-bench/donor parts ($900-$2,000+) and success depends on damage severity.

Professional hard drive data recovery follows an image-first workflow using industry-standard tools like the PC-3000 Portable III (manufactured by ACE Lab) and DeepSpar Disk Imager. The six steps: (1) Evaluate symptoms safely and protect the media; never run CHKDSK or Disk Utility on a failing disk. (2) If the drive is not detected, correct firmware or translator issues; this involves ROM extraction, service area module repair, and adaptive parameter correction. (3) Acquire a sector-level image with write-blocking and controlled retries using DeepSpar or ddrescue. (4) If heads are stuck or weak, unstick or replace them on a laminar-flow clean bench using exact-match donor parts, then resume imaging. (5) Rebuild the file system from the clone image and extract files; this works across NTFS, HFS+, APFS, ext4, XFS, and ZFS. (6) Verify file integrity and deliver the data on a new device. Typical turnaround is 5 to 10 business days for standard cases.

Yes; often enough to recover your data, but a repaired hard drive shouldn't be reused. In professional hard drive data recovery we stabilize the drive with PC-3000-class tools, correct firmware/PCB issues or replace stuck/bad heads on a clean bench using an exact-match donor, then acquire a write-blocked sector-by-sector image. Files are recovered from the image, verified, and delivered on a new drive; the old failing HDD is retired.

No. Removing a drive from a computer does not erase it. Data remains on the platters (HDD) or NAND (SSD) until it is securely overwritten or cryptographically erased. If you need a wipe, request a verified secure-erase with certificate.

Geek Squad offers data recovery, but most complex hard drive data recovery (head swaps/clean-bench cases) is outsourced to partner labs rather than done in-store, which can add time, cost, and a middleman. We perform all recovery in-house in Austin with clean-bench procedures, PC-3000 imaging, direct technician communication, and transparent pricing.

On most Seagate 2.5-inch external drives (including Rosewood), a repeating beep usually means the spindle can't start because the read/write heads are stuck on the platters. That's a mechanical fault, not a cable or power issue. Power-cycling, tapping the drive, opening the HDA, or running repair utilities can scratch platters and turn a $300-$400 unstick into a $1,000-$2,000+ clean-bench head swap. If the data matters, stop powering it.

Most LaCie external drives contain a Seagate HDD inside. A repeating beep usually means the motor can't start because the read/write heads are stuck on the platters (common after a drop on 2.5″ models). Don't power-cycle, tap, or open the drive; those moves turn a $300-$400 unstick into a $1,000-$2,000 clean-bench head swap.

If the drive still spins and is detected, you can try the free SystemRescue + ddrescue method: clone the failing drive to an equal-or-larger target, then recover from the clone. Do a fast pass to grab good sectors, then a retry pass for bad areas. Do not run CHKDSK/Disk Utility repairs on the original. If it clicks/beeps or isn't detected, stop; those typically need a lab.

No. Under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act (15 U.S.C. 2302, full text at law.cornell.edu), a manufacturer cannot void your warranty simply because you used an independent service provider. The burden of proof is on the manufacturer; they must demonstrate that the independent repair caused the specific defect they are refusing to cover. The FTC has reinforced this interpretation in its 2018 warranty guidance. In practice, most drives that need data recovery are already out of warranty or have failed beyond any warranty coverage. We do not modify firmware in ways that would affect warranty claims on working drives.

Standard service: 5-10 business days from when we receive your drive. Priority service: 24-72 hours for qualifying cases. Actual recovery time depends on the failure type. Logical issues (deleted files, corruption) finish in 1-3 days. Firmware repairs take 3-7 days. Head swaps require sourcing a donor drive and can take 1-3 weeks. We provide status updates throughout.

Use software if: the drive spins up normally, appears in Disk Management/Disk Utility, and has no clicking or grinding sounds. Try ddrescue or R-Studio on a clone. Use a lab if: the drive clicks, beeps, grinds, isn't detected, or shows S.M.A.R.T. errors. Running software on a physically failing drive can destroy the heads and turn a $400 job into a $1,500 job or total loss.

DriveSavers has 40+ years of experience and SOC 2 certification; their services typically cost $2,000-$7,000. Since 2008, we've used the same PC-3000 equipment to achieve comparable results for $300-$1,500. We keep pricing lower by performing all work in-house at our Austin lab and not buying ads.

Usually yes. Software like Recuva or Disk Drill is safe for logical failures (deleted files, corruption) and won't damage the drive. If your drive clicks, beeps, or grinds, software can't help and repeated attempts may worsen the damage. We recover data after failed DIY attempts daily. Send it in.

We recover drives other shops gave up on. Opening a drive outside a clean environment introduces contamination, which makes recovery harder but not always impossible. We handle previously opened drives daily and will give you an honest assessment. Send it for a free evaluation.

Yes, in most cases. A 'quick format' only erases the file system index; your actual data remains on the platters until overwritten by new files. We clone the drive first with PC-3000/DeepSpar, then carve files from the raw image. Success depends on how much new data was written after formatting. If you accidentally formatted a drive, stop using it immediately and contact us. Full (overwrite) formats are harder but partial recovery is often still possible depending on how far the process got.

Yes. A 'dead' hard drive usually means one of three things: not powering on (PCB failure), not spinning (seized motor or stuck heads), or not detected (firmware corruption). All three are recoverable. PCB failures need ROM chip transplant to a donor board. Stuck heads need clean bench unstick or head swap. Firmware corruption needs PC-3000 module repair. The platters holding your data are rarely damaged; the access mechanism is. Stop powering it and ship it for evaluation.

Yes; clicking drives are one of the most common data recovery cases. The clicking sound (sometimes called 'click of death') occurs when the read/write heads cannot locate their servo tracks on the platter surface. Servo tracks are pre-written positioning data embedded in each platter during manufacturing; they guide the heads to the correct cylinder. When the head assembly or preamplifier is damaged, the heads repeatedly seek and fail to lock onto the servo pattern, producing the rhythmic clicking. Common causes include physical shock (dropped drives), age-related head degradation, and preamplifier failure. We stabilize access using PC-3000, create a head map to disable failing heads while imaging from healthy heads, and use controlled retry parameters to recover sectors in weak zones. In severe cases, we perform an exact-match donor head swap on our laminar-flow clean bench validated to 0.02 microns. Recovery success depends on whether the damaged heads caused platter scoring before the drive was powered off. The sooner you stop powering a clicking drive, the better the recovery odds.

Yes. External hard drives (WD Passport, Seagate Backup Plus, LaCie Rugged, G-Technology) contain regular HDDs or SSDs inside a USB enclosure. We remove the drive from the enclosure and connect directly via SATA, bypassing potential USB controller issues. The recovery process is identical to internal drives: logical, firmware, or mechanical repair depending on the failure. Common external drive failures include dropped drives (head damage), beeping 2.5-inch Seagates (stuck heads), and PCB damage from power surges.

It depends on the value of your data versus the recovery cost. For businesses, lost client records, financial data, or intellectual property often justifies $1,000-$2,000 in recovery fees. For individuals, irreplaceable family photos, years of creative work, or graduate research are typically worth the investment. Our no-data-no-charge policy removes financial risk; you only pay if we successfully recover your files. We provide a free evaluation and will honestly tell you if recovery is unlikely to succeed, saving you from spending money on a lost cause.

Hard drives fail from four main causes: (1) Mechanical wear; head crashes, bearing seizure, and motor failure increase with age and physical shock. (2) Electronic damage; power surges, PCB shorts, and controller failure from unstable power supply. (3) Firmware corruption; ROM errors, translator bugs, and service area module damage that prevent the drive from identifying correctly. (4) Logical errors; file system corruption, accidental deletion, and partition table damage from software issues or improper shutdowns. According to Backblaze's 2024 Drive Stats report covering 300,000+ drives, the average annualized failure rate is roughly 1.7%, with individual models ranging from 0.44% (Seagate ST16000NM001G) to over 8% for certain older Seagate enterprise models. External factors like overheating, moisture, and sudden physical impacts accelerate all types of failure.

First, try a different cable and USB/SATA port; cables fail more often than drives. Check Disk Management (Windows) or Disk Utility (Mac) to see if the drive appears without a drive letter. If the drive spins but isn't detected, it's likely a firmware or PCB issue recoverable with PC-3000 tools. If the drive doesn't spin at all, it could be a seized motor, stuck heads, or dead PCB. Do not run CHKDSK or repair utilities on an undetected drive. If basic troubleshooting doesn't help, power it off and contact us for a free evaluation. 'Not detected' drives are one of our most common and successful recovery types.

Yes. Seagate Barracuda drives are one of our most common recoveries. The 7200 RPM desktop models (ST1000DM010, ST2000DM008, ST4000DM004) frequently develop firmware issues, head failures, and bad sector growth. We handle all Barracuda failure modes with PC-3000: firmware module repair for drives not detected, head swaps for clicking drives, and sector-level imaging for degraded media. Barracuda Pro and Compute variants use similar families and respond to the same recovery techniques.

WD My Passport drives are 2.5-inch portable drives that commonly fail from drops and cable yanks. Recent models use hardware encryption on the USB bridge board. If the bridge fails, the drive data is encrypted and unreadable even over SATA. We desolder the encryption chip and pair it with a working PCB, or use PC-3000 Portable to work through the bridge directly. Older My Passport models without encryption are more straightforward: we remove the drive from the enclosure and image via SATA. Common failures include stuck heads from drops and PCB shorts from cheap USB cables.

Toshiba (now Kioxia for enterprise) drives have unique firmware architecture that requires Toshiba-specific modules in PC-3000. The MQ/MG series laptop drives are common in older laptops and frequently fail from head parking failures after years of use. Canvio external drives contain standard Toshiba 2.5-inch mechanisms. We maintain Toshiba donor stock and PC-3000 Toshiba modules for firmware repair. Recovery success rates are comparable to Seagate and WD; the main challenge is donor availability for less common models.

Yes. Hitachi/HGST drives (now owned by Western Digital) are generally well-built but fail from bearing wear and head degradation over time. The Deskstar 7K series (desktop) and Travelstar (laptop) lines have known firmware issues on certain revisions. HGST Ultrastar enterprise drives are very reliable but when they fail, recovery requires specialized SA-level firmware work. We stock Hitachi/HGST donors and handle their unique firmware structure with PC-3000.

Samsung exited the HDD market in 2011 (Seagate bought the division), but Samsung SpinPoint drives are still common in older systems. The HD103SJ and HD154UI series had known firmware bugs that could cause sudden non-detection. We repair Samsung firmware with PC-3000's Samsung module and stock compatible donors for head swaps. If your Samsung drive clicks or isn't detected, it's likely a firmware or head issue; both are recoverable in most cases.

Maxtor was acquired by Seagate in 2006, but Maxtor drives still still show up, often in old NAS units or desktop PCs from the mid-2000s. The DiamondMax and MaxLine series are the most common. These drives are aging and frequently have bearing failure and platter degradation. We maintain a small Maxtor donor inventory for head swaps. Recovery success depends on how badly the platters have degraded; drives that have been sitting unpowered for years often still have intact data.

WD Elements are budget external drives with standard WD 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch mechanisms inside. Unlike My Passport drives, most Elements models do NOT use hardware encryption on the USB bridge, which makes recovery more straightforward. We remove the drive from the enclosure and connect via SATA for direct imaging. Common failures: dropped drives with stuck/damaged heads, USB port damage, and age-related bad sector growth. If your Elements drive clicks after a drop, stop powering it. The heads are likely damaged and need a clean bench swap.

Yes. LaCie externals (Rugged, d2, Mobile Drive) contain Seagate mechanisms since Seagate acquired LaCie in 2012. The LaCie Rugged series is popular with creative professionals and frequently comes in after drops despite the rubber bumper. We treat these as Seagate recoveries: remove from enclosure, diagnose via SATA, and apply standard Seagate recovery procedures. LaCie Rugged RAID models require RAID reconstruction after individual drive recovery.

In most cases, yes. Dropped drives typically suffer from stuck or damaged read/write heads. If the drive was running when dropped, the heads may have scored the platters, which reduces recovery chances. If it was off, the heads likely just stuck to the platter surface or the parking ramp broke; both are recoverable with a clean bench head swap. The critical factor: do NOT power the drive on after a drop if it makes unusual sounds. Every power cycle with damaged heads risks platter scoring. Ship it to us unpowered for a free evaluation.

Usually yes. Power surges typically damage the PCB (printed circuit board) and sometimes the preamplifier inside the head assembly. The platters and data remain intact. Recovery involves transplanting the ROM chip (containing drive-specific calibration data) from the damaged PCB to a matching donor PCB, or using PC-3000 to read and rewrite the ROM adaptives. If the surge also damaged the heads or preamplifier, a head swap may be needed. Surge-damaged drives are among our highest-success recoveries because the data itself is rarely affected.

A drive that won't spin has either a seized spindle motor, stuck heads preventing rotation, or a dead PCB. We diagnose by listening and testing electrically. Stuck heads: we unstick them on a clean bench using specialized tools ($300-$400). Seized motor: we can sometimes free it or transplant the platters to a donor chassis ($1,200-$2,000+). Dead PCB: we transplant the ROM chip to a compatible donor board ($200-$500). The platters hold your data regardless of why the motor isn't spinning.

It depends on the extent of the damage. Light platter scratches from brief head contact: we can often recover 80-95% of data by imaging around damaged zones with controlled retries. Severe scoring from prolonged operation with damaged heads: recovery drops, sometimes to 50% or less of files. Circular scoring (ring of death): data in the scored zone is typically unrecoverable, but data on undamaged tracks can often be saved. The earlier you stop powering a clicking drive, the less platter damage accumulates.

A head crash occurs when the read/write heads physically contact the spinning platter surface, scraping off the magnetic coating that stores data. This creates visible circular scoring and metallic debris inside the drive. Recovery depends on severity: if the crash was brief (drive powered off quickly), most data outside the contact zone is recoverable. If the drive ran for hours with crashed heads, scoring can be extensive. We perform head swaps on our clean bench, clean debris from the platters using specialized techniques, and image conservatively to recover as much data as possible.

Often yes, depending on temperature exposure. Hard drive platters store data as magnetic orientation in a cobalt-chromium-platinum alloy layer. The Curie temperature of cobalt alloy is approximately 1,115 degrees Celsius (source: CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics); below that threshold, the magnetic orientation that encodes your data remains stable. Most residential fires reach 600 to 800 degrees Celsius at the ceiling (per NFPA fire dynamics research), and the aluminum drive chassis and platter substrate provide thermal insulation, so the interior of the drive often stays below the critical threshold. The bigger threat is water from fire suppression systems, which causes PCB corrosion, connector oxidation, and head contamination. We clean and inspect fire-damaged drives on our clean bench, transplant ROM chips to donor PCBs, and image the platters. Success varies: smoke-exposed drives recover well; drives from the fire's epicenter are more challenging.

Yes. Bad sectors are one of the most common and most recoverable failure types. We use PC-3000 and DeepSpar to image the drive with controlled read retries, timeouts, and head disabling to work around bad areas. A drive with scattered bad sectors typically yields 95-100% data recovery. A drive with a growing bad sector zone may indicate degrading heads, in which case we image aggressively before the heads fail completely. Do not run CHKDSK or fsck on a drive with growing bad sectors. These tools make write operations that can worsen head damage.

It depends on the encryption type. Hardware-encrypted drives (WD My Passport, some Seagate externals): we can recover data if the encryption chip is functional, since the key is stored on the USB bridge PCB. We transplant the chip to a working board. Software-encrypted drives (BitLocker, FileVault, VeraCrypt): we can recover the encrypted volume, but you need the password or recovery key to decrypt it. We cannot bypass encryption without the key. Full-disk encryption with a working key: we image the drive, then you decrypt the image. The encryption itself doesn't affect our ability to recover the raw data; it's the decryption step that requires your key.

HDDs store data magnetically on spinning aluminum or glass platters using a cobalt alloy magnetic layer; SSDs store data electrically in NAND flash chips as trapped electrons in floating-gate transistors. HDD recovery focuses on mechanical repair (head swaps, spindle motor work, platter transplants) and firmware correction (service area module repair, ROM extraction, adaptive parameter restoration). SSD recovery focuses on controller replacement, direct NAND chip-off reading, and flash translation layer (FTL) reconstruction. HDDs are generally more recoverable from physical damage because the magnetic data persists on platters independent of electronics. SSDs with controller failure can be harder because the data is scrambled across multiple NAND chips using wear leveling algorithms, and recovering it requires the controller's mapping table or reverse-engineering the data layout. We use the PC-3000 Portable III for HDD recovery and PC-3000 SSD for solid-state drive cases.

A clean room is an entire room maintained at ISO Class 5 per the ISO 14644-1 standard, allowing a maximum of 100 particles (0.5 microns or larger) per cubic foot. A clean bench (laminar flow hood) creates a localized clean zone at the workstation using HEPA or ULPA filtration with unidirectional airflow. For hard drive data recovery, a properly validated clean bench provides adequate particle control for head swaps and platter work; the critical area is the 12-inch zone directly above the open drive, not the entire room. Our laminar-flow bench filters to 0.02 microns and validates to zero particles before every open-drive procedure. Large corporate labs use clean rooms partly as marketing ('ISO Class 5 cleanroom'), but recovery success rates are determined by technician skill and tooling, not room size or facility overhead.

PC-3000 is professional data recovery hardware and software manufactured by ACE Lab. It is the industry-standard tool used by virtually every legitimate data recovery lab worldwide, including DriveSavers, Ontrack, and independent labs. PC-3000 communicates directly with a hard drive's firmware through vendor-specific terminal commands (Seagate F3, WD ATA, Toshiba UART); it can repair corrupted service area modules, extract and rewrite ROM data, disable failing heads via head maps, control read timeouts at the sector level, and bypass drive-level security locks. Without PC-3000-class tools, a recovery lab is limited to software-only approaches that cannot fix firmware corruption, translator failure, or mechanical issues. We use the PC-3000 Portable III (the current generation) along with DeepSpar Disk Imager for controlled sector-level imaging with configurable retry and timeout parameters.

We recover from all common file systems: NTFS and FAT32 (Windows), HFS+ and APFS (Mac), ext2/ext3/ext4 and XFS (Linux), UFS (FreeBSD), and ZFS. We also handle RAID-specific file systems and NAS configurations (Synology, QNAP, TrueNAS). File system type affects the recovery approach but not whether recovery is possible. We image the raw drive first (bypassing the file system entirely), then reconstruct files from the image. Even if the file system is completely destroyed, file carving can recover documents, photos, and videos based on file signatures.

Hard drive firmware is microcode stored in a reserved area on the platters called the Service Area (SA), plus a small ROM chip on the PCB. The SA contains dozens of modules that control how the drive operates: the translator module maps logical block addresses (LBAs) to physical head/cylinder locations, adaptive parameters store per-head calibration data, and the P-list/G-list track defective sectors. Firmware corruption can cause a drive to not be detected, misidentify its capacity (showing 0 GB or 32 MB), or refuse to read data; yet the user data on the platters is perfectly intact. Common causes include power loss during a firmware update, bad sector growth encroaching into the SA tracks, and age-related magnetic degradation of the service area. PC-3000 communicates with drives at the firmware level through vendor-specific terminal protocols (Seagate F3, WD ATA commands) to read, repair, and rewrite these modules. Firmware recoveries are among our highest-success cases because user data is untouched.

Usually yes, but CHKDSK and Disk Utility can make recovery harder. These tools make write operations to 'repair' the file system: they relocate sectors, rebuild directory entries, and sometimes move data. On a physically failing drive, this causes additional head stress and can worsen damage. On a logically corrupted drive, CHKDSK may orphan files or overwrite directory structures. If you've run CHKDSK and your files are missing, we can often recover them by carving the raw image. But prevention is better: never run repair tools on a drive with suspected physical issues. Clone first, repair the clone.

For RAID 1 (mirror): we recover data from the surviving drive, or recover the failed drive individually. For RAID 5: we image all drives, rebuild the array virtually, and reconstruct using parity. A single-drive RAID 5 failure is straightforward if the remaining drives are healthy. For RAID 0 (striped, no redundancy): we must recover all drives and reconstruct the stripe order. RAID 6 tolerates two simultaneous failures. We handle all RAID levels and common NAS configurations (Synology DSM, QNAP QTS, TrueNAS). Important: do not attempt RAID rebuilds on degraded arrays with failing drives. The rebuild process can kill the second drive.

Three factors inflate data recovery pricing: (1) Advertising: companies spending $50-100K/month on Google Ads pass that cost to customers. (2) Outsourcing: middleman companies accept drives, ship them to a partner lab, and add their markup. (3) Certification overhead: SOC 2 audits ($50K+/year), ISO cleanroom maintenance, and enterprise sales teams all get factored into per-job pricing. We keep costs at $300-$1,500 for most jobs because we do all work in-house in Austin, don't buy ads, and invest in equipment rather than certifications. Same PC-3000 tools, same clean bench procedures, lower overhead.

Our free evaluation includes: (1) Visual inspection of the drive exterior for damage, (2) PCB inspection for burnt components or corrosion, (3) Listening for mechanical sounds (clicking, beeping, grinding), (4) If safe, connecting to PC-3000 for firmware-level diagnosis, (5) Determining the failure type (logical, firmware, or mechanical), (6) Providing a firm price quote for recovery. We do NOT attempt recovery during evaluation. We diagnose first and quote a fixed price. You approve before any chargeable work begins. If we determine recovery is unlikely to succeed, we'll tell you honestly rather than charge for an attempt.

Wrap the drive in anti-static bubble wrap or an anti-static bag. Place it in a box with at least 2 inches of padding on all sides (foam, bubble wrap, or crumpled paper). Do NOT use packing peanuts alone; the drive can shift and impact the box walls. Mark the box 'FRAGILE' and use a tracked shipping method (USPS Priority, UPS, FedEx). Include a note with your name, email, phone, and a description of the problem. We provide a prepaid return label after recovery. Ship to: Rossmann Repair Group, 2410 San Antonio Street, Austin, TX 78705.

Yes. Our standard turnaround is 5-10 business days. For urgent cases, we offer priority service (2-3 business days) with a surcharge. Emergency same-day or next-day evaluation is available for qualifying cases; contact us to discuss. Rush availability depends on current lab workload and the complexity of your case. Firmware and logical recoveries are easiest to rush; head swaps requiring specific donor sourcing may have minimum lead times regardless of priority level.

Your drive never leaves our Austin lab. Only your assigned technician accesses your data. We work on encrypted workstations and recovered data is stored on encrypted drives. We sign NDAs and BAAs on request. After you confirm receipt of your recovered data, we securely wipe all working copies from our systems. We don't subcontract, outsource, or ship drives to partner labs. Chain-of-custody documentation is available for legal and compliance cases.

These tiers describe recovery complexity: Level 1 (Logical, $100-$500): The drive works physically but data is lost from deletion, formatting, or corruption. Recovery is software-based from a cloned image. Level 2 (Firmware, $300-$1,200): The drive spins but isn't detected or misidentifies. Requires PC-3000 firmware repair to restore access, then imaging. Level 3 (Mechanical, $900-$2,000+): The drive has physical damage: stuck/failed heads, seized motor, PCB failure. Requires clean bench work, donor parts, and specialized imaging. Most companies use similar tiers but charge 2-3x more at each level.

You don't pay. Our no-data-no-charge policy means if we cannot recover your target files, there is no charge for the recovery attempt. We provide a file listing before delivery so you can verify we recovered what you need. The only scenario where a nominal fee applies is if recovery is technically successful but you decline the data. We eat the cost of technician time, donor parts, and clean bench work on unsuccessful cases. It's a risk we accept because it builds trust and gives you zero financial downside.

Ontrack (Kroll Ontrack) has 35+ years of experience and handles large enterprise RAID/SAN recoveries. Their pricing is quote-based and typically $800-$3,000+ for standard HDD recovery. We use the same class of tools (PC-3000, DeepSpar) and achieve comparable results on consumer and small business drives for $300-$1,500. Key differences: we offer direct technician communication (Ontrack uses account managers), transparent upfront pricing (vs quote-based), and YouTube-documented processes. Ontrack may be better suited for complex enterprise RAID arrays; we're a better fit for individual drives and small business recoveries where cost transparency matters.

SecureData Recovery advertises a 96% success rate and ISO 4 cleanroom certification. Their pricing typically runs $500-$3,000+. We perform comparable recovery work with PC-3000 tools and a Class 100 clean bench for $300-$1,500. Key differences: SecureData has multiple locations (we're Austin-only with mail-in nationwide), SecureData emphasizes certifications (we emphasize transparent pricing and YouTube-documented work), and SecureData uses account managers (we connect you directly with your technician). Both companies do legitimate in-house recovery work.

Most local computer repair shops don't have PC-3000 tools or clean bench facilities. They either attempt software-only recovery (which fails on firmware and mechanical issues) or ship your drive to a partner lab and add their markup. Questions to ask any local shop: Do you have PC-3000 equipment? Do you do head swaps in-house? Can I speak to the technician? If the answers are no, they're middlemen. We do all work in-house in Austin with PC-3000 Portable III and a validated clean bench. Mail-in takes 2-3 days transit and we provide prepaid return shipping.

For most HDD recoveries, yes, typically 50-70% less. A clicking drive head swap that DriveSavers quotes at $2,500-$7,000, we typically complete for $900-$1,500. A firmware repair they quote at $1,500-$2,000, we handle for $300-$800. The work is the same: PC-3000 diagnosis, clean bench head swaps, sector-level imaging. The price difference comes from overhead: DriveSavers spends heavily on advertising, maintains an ISO Class 5 cleanroom (vs our Class 100 bench), has SOC 2 certification ($50K+/year), and employs a larger support staff. We invest in tools and keep overhead low.

TRIM (defined in the ATA Command Set as 'Data Set Management') tells the SSD controller to erase blocks that no longer contain valid data. Once the controller processes the TRIM command, it zeroes or unmaps those NAND flash pages, making recovery of trimmed files impossible in most cases. However, TRIM only affects deleted files on a healthy, powered-on SSD. If your SSD has a controller failure, firmware corruption, or will not power on, the TRIM queue has not executed and the raw NAND data remains intact. We can recover data from failed SSDs by reading NAND chips directly (chip-off) or repairing the controller firmware with the PC-3000 SSD tool from ACE Lab. If you accidentally deleted files on a working SSD, act fast; some SSDs and operating systems delay TRIM execution (Windows issues TRIM in batches, and some older SSDs queue TRIM commands).

Yes. NAS recovery involves imaging each drive individually, then virtually reconstructing the RAID array and file system. Synology uses Linux-based mdraid and Btrfs/ext4; QNAP uses similar configurations. We handle RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, and SHR (Synology Hybrid RAID). Common NAS failures: multiple drive failures in a degraded array, firmware update failures, and volume corruption. Important: if your NAS reports a degraded array, do NOT attempt a rebuild if any remaining drives show S.M.A.R.T. warnings. The rebuild stress can kill the next weakest drive and make recovery much harder.

Magnetic data on hard drive platters can persist for decades under proper storage conditions (cool, dry, away from strong magnetic fields). Modern platters use a cobalt-chromium-platinum alloy with high coercivity (typically 4,000 to 6,000 Oersted for perpendicular magnetic recording media), meaning the magnetic orientation that encodes data resists change from external fields or thermal fluctuation. Drives stored unpowered for 10 to 20+ years typically still contain fully recoverable data. The practical risk is not data decay; it is mechanical degradation: spindle bearing lubricant dries out, head parking ramp material becomes brittle, and PCB electrolytic capacitors age and leak. If you have an old drive you need data from, do not power it on; the dried bearings can seize and damage platters on the first spin. Send it for professional evaluation.

On modern high-density drives, no. Once data is overwritten, the original magnetic pattern is destroyed. The myth that overwritten data can be recovered with an electron microscope originates from Peter Gutmann's 1996 paper 'Secure Deletion of Data from Magnetic and Solid-State Memory,' which studied low-density MFM/RLL drives. Modern drives use perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) at track densities exceeding 500,000 tracks per inch; at this density, a single overwrite pass is sufficient to make the original data unrecoverable. NIST Special Publication 800-88 ('Guidelines for Media Sanitization') confirms that a single-pass overwrite is adequate for modern magnetic media. This means: if you deleted files and then wrote new data to the same sectors, those files are gone. Files in sectors that have not yet been overwritten can still be recovered via file carving techniques.

Grinding (as opposed to clicking) usually means the spindle motor bearing has seized or the heads are dragging across the platter surface. Power off immediately. Do not attempt to power it on again. Grinding with heads on platters causes progressive surface damage that destroys data zones. This is a clean bench case requiring either head replacement, motor/platter transplant, or both. Ship the drive to us unpowered with padding. Grinding drives have lower recovery rates than clicking drives because surface damage is typically more extensive, but recovery is often still possible for data outside the damaged zones.

Yes. Mac HDDs use HFS+ or APFS file systems, both of which we fully support. Fusion Drives combine an SSD and HDD into a single logical volume managed by macOS Core Storage; we image both components and reconstruct the Fusion volume. T2-chip Macs with hardware encryption require your Mac login password or recovery key to decrypt after imaging. For older Macs (pre-2018 without T2), recovery is straightforward; same HDD recovery process regardless of whether it was in a Mac or PC. We also recover data from failed Mac SSDs (soldered NAND on 2016+ MacBooks).

S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) tracks drive health metrics. Key indicators: Reallocated Sector Count (spare sectors used to replace bad ones; rising counts mean the drive is degrading), Current Pending Sector (sectors waiting to be reallocated; indicates active bad sector growth), and Uncorrectable Sector Count (sectors that can't be read at all). If S.M.A.R.T. reports errors, back up immediately and stop using the drive. Don't wait for it to fail completely. If you can't back up because the drive is too slow or producing errors, send it for professional imaging. We can extract data from degrading drives before they fail entirely.

Yes. IDE (PATA) drives from the early 2000s and earlier use a 40-pin parallel interface instead of modern SATA. We have IDE adapters for PC-3000 and can handle drives from 500MB to 500GB IDE models. Common IDE drive brands: Maxtor DiamondMax, Western Digital Caviar, Seagate Barracuda ATA, IBM/Hitachi Deskstar. Age is the biggest challenge; these drives may have dried bearing lubricant and brittle head assemblies. Donor availability is limited for rare models. If you have an old IDE drive, don't power it on without professional evaluation.