Data recovery - rip off or worth it?

W00dy11

Hi everyone -

my hard drive crashed recently - no access and I had not backed up/could not find my back up.
Did loads of research on firms offering data recovery including reading multiple reviews.

Eventually settled on a firm offering no obligation quote - prior to sending drive they said it sounded like electrical failure and would cost £99 but if when they got it there were more faults quote could go up - still obligation free no money up front.

Unsurprisingly they are now saying -

File System Rebuild - £145
Read/Write Head Transplant - £195
Unreadable Sector Remap - £145
Required Parts (New read/write heads) - £100
-15% Discount for online quote
TOTAL Cost excluding VAT - £497.25

This is still only payable if they recover data.

So basically I am trying to decide if this is a big rip off. Company is called DTL data recovery

Has had anyone any experience of them?

All thoughts welcome -

gardner1

Depends what you had on it and do you need a company to recover it for you ..........new hd can be very cheap
What was stored on it that warrants paying nearly £500

W00dy11

Loads of the usual stuff, music, photos etc all of which sad to lose but would get over it.

Main concern is I have spreadsheet with all my expenses for self assessment tax return and my invoices - groan. 🤦🏻!♀️

But really looking for info about whether these kinds of companies are legit and what their charging is fair

But thanks for the reply

gardner1

So you had nothing saved in cloud/on memory stick or any other back ups..........i don't mean to sound obvious but after its sorted back up back up & back up

that

W00dy11 wrote: »

So basically I am trying to decide if this is a big rip off. Company is called DTL data recovery

Has had anyone any experience of them?

All thoughts welcome -

They are based in the USA so thier web page states. If you complain about their services they threaten litigation https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.datatrack-labs.co.uk?page=4 Look for the name Will Pearson

So, if they recover your data, where are they going to put it, so will at least cost you another disk extra as they probably won't put the data back on an iffy disk? is there postage extra? if USA based is there import duty?

W00dy11

Postage back is free (if I accept the quote) and they have a base here too - it went to Cardiff. Yes you are right they will charge me for a new hard drive but if it less than 14GB they put it on a USB as part of the price but over that the hard drive....

wongataa

W00dy11 wrote: »

Hi everyone -

my hard drive crashed recently - no access and I had not backed up/could not find my back up.
Did loads of research on firms offering data recovery including reading multiple reviews.

Eventually settled on a firm offering no obligation quote - prior to sending drive they said it sounded like electrical failure and would cost £99 but if when they got it there were more faults quote could go up - still obligation free no money up front.

Unsurprisingly they are now saying -

File System Rebuild - £145
Read/Write Head Transplant - £195
Unreadable Sector Remap - £145
Required Parts (New read/write heads) - £100
-15% Discount for online quote
TOTAL Cost excluding VAT - £497.25

This is still only payable if they recover data.

So basically I am trying to decide if this is a big rip off. Company is called DTL data recovery

Has had anyone any experience of them?

All thoughts welcome -

With any service like this it will depend on how important the lost data is to you and whether you think it is important enough to spend that amount of money trying to recover it. Only you can work this out.

lewishardwick

If you could find an identical make/model, you could try transplanting the platters.

But it's very risky!

Undervalued

W00dy11 wrote: »

Loads of the usual stuff, music, photos etc all of which sad to lose but would get over it.

Main concern is I have spreadsheet with all my expenses for self assessment tax return and my invoices - groan. 🤦🏻!♀️

But really looking for info about whether these kinds of companies are legit and what their charging is fair

But thanks for the reply

I have no idea about this particular company but there are a lot that are not "legit" I'm afraid. There are a whole string of "companies" in this country that are just different trading names of one outfit. You don't have to look far online to find horror stories about them. The common theme seems to be people enticed in with "from £99" or similar then finding they want £500 to £800 for software recovery. A lot say they had great difficulty getting their disk back if the turned the quote down.

"Fair" is irrelevant unless you can find somebody reliable who will do it for less.

If it is beyond what can be done with software then HD data recovery is a highly specialised business. Even if they are 100% genuine, working on a no fix no fee basis means you are in effect paying for unsuccessful attempts they make for other people!

Only you know what the data is worth to you. At a forensic level virtually everything can be recovered from a hard disk but that sort of work, if genuinely needed, doesn't come cheap.

GunJack

There is/was a long-running thread on here about data recovery, with some UK companies recommended...use the forum search function to try and track it down


edit - the companies that came recommended by trusted forum users were Kroll Ontrack and cheadle data recovery, might be worth looking for them if they're still around.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2520295/fields-data-recovery-rapid-data-recovery&highlight=data+recovery&page=3

that

W00dy11 wrote: »

Postage back is free (if I accept the quote) and they have a base here too - it went to Cardiff. Yes you are right they will charge me for a new hard drive but if it less than 14GB they put it on a USB as part of the price but over that the hard drive....

I do not think you will have a 14GB drive ie 14GB of data, but more. Fairly sure they will recover all the data. Fairly sure they will post all the data, and not just the wanted bits

Had stuff sent to Ontrack before, and they were good. Also heard of cheadle too (not in a bad way)

Please read all 4 pages of this https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3934345/hard-drive-data-recovery-datatrack-labs#topofpage
Think you may want to avoid these https://data-recovery-blog.co.uk/fields-and-rapid-reviews/
or if the address is Cardiff address is (may have changed?)
Bocam Park, 18-21 Old Field Rd, Pencoed, Bridgend CF35 5LJ