Broken drives and professional data retrieval labs

If you don’t feel confident attempting to rescue your deleted or corrupted data yourself then you can turn to one of the companies that specialise in forensic data retrieval.

The normal procedure for a desktop PC is to remove the relevant hard disk and ship it to the company’s lab.

For laptop computers usually the entire computer is shipped, although it may be possible to just ship the drive if it is from one of the major laptop brands and is mounted in a quick-release sleeve.

This option is only worth considering if the lost data is of significant value, because retrieval costs can be considerable.

Most retrieval labs operate on a case-by-case quotation basis and of course cannot guarantee they will be able to salvage anything useful from your disks.

Pricing structures

Some of these companies offer a quotation service via their websites, where you enter various details such as the operating system in use, the media type that contains the lost data, volume size and steps taken so far to recover the data.

Usually you will receive a responding email within a few hours giving you at least a ballpark figure.

Taking Binary Biz as an example, for a five to seven-day turnaround it charges US customers a base rate of $500 plus a further $75 per gigabyte, capped at a maximum of $2,000. For a firm quote up front they charge an extra $150.

Binary Biz says that its lab is certified by most major disk manufacturers, so working on your drives won’t void the disk warranty. However, with the relatively low cost of hard drives today, this may not be an issue.

Although based in India, Stellar International Systems does list a UK contact number for retrieval work (020 7993 2293). Its approach to pricing is to say ‘Each disk crash is different; no estimate of costs and/or time is possible before examining the drive and completing an assessment.’

Kroll Ontrack operates retrieval labs and services in the UK and offers an online quotation service.

Another well-known specialist, Vogon International , provides a wide range of retrieval services including a 14-day turnaround service for home users where recovery costs between £250 and £450.

In contrast, some UK companies offer services on a different basis. For example, Easy Recovery of Belfast offers a no-fix-no-fee service and, for recovery from hard disk, charges a flat fee of £499.99 per drive.

Other options

Other recovery options include an on-site visit by a data recovery specialist or remote recovery over the Internet.

Forensic data recovery is an expensive business to operate. Retrieval labs require a certified clean room environment so that hard disks can be disassembled, the platters removed and mounted in custom-built retrieval rigs.

Such systems offer levels of data analysis and retrieval far beyond anything achievable by the software utilities reviewed in this feature.

This article is part of a grooup test. All articles in the test are as follows:
A quick recovery
Active Data Recovery Active@ Undelete 
Binary Biz Virtual Lab
Ontrack Easy Recovery Lite
PC Tools File Recover 5
R-Tools Technology R-Studio 
Stellar Phoenix Fat + NTFS
Retaining control of your data
Broken drives and professional data retrieval labs