5 Best Hard Drive Recovery Services of 2024 (Fast & Affordable)
Data storage devices are an important part of our daily personal and business lives. You store your important documents on a hard disk drive or an external hard drive for easy access anytime you need it. It is easy to assume that your hard drives are safe, but that is far from the truth.
Data loss can happen suddenly without any warning and cause you to lose your stored information. Such loss can hurt your business, especially when it involves vital information your business needs.
An alternative storage medium to use to store your information is to use file sharing and cloud storage services like Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, and other Dropbox alternatives. However, using these services is expensive especially when you have a large amount of data to store.
When you lose data from your hard drive, you can still recover it with a hard drive data recovery service. They offer more comprehensive recovery results especially after you have tried recovering from your backup or using data recovery software.
Hard disk recovery services are like spare tires you always have at the trunk of your car. The need for it may never arise but you still keep it there in the event you ever need it.
If your hard drive ever gets damaged or corrupted, you need to know which HDD recovery services can help you recover your data. Hard disk recovery services may be the only hope you have of rescuing your data from permanent loss.
In this article, you will learn about 5 of the best hard drive recovery services, features of a reliable hard drive recovery service, and how to choose the best one for your data recovery needs.
Let’s get started.
Best Hard Drive Recovery Services
1. ACE Data Recovery
Overall Best Hard Drive Data Recovery Service with Rapid Remote Recovery Option
With support for a wide range of internal and external hard drives through partnerships with multiple HDD manufacturers, ACE Data Recovery proves to be your best bet in recovering your lost data. It is the best data recovery company with a rapid remote recovery option.
ACE Data Recovery works on recovering data from crashed desktops, laptops, netbooks, and even server hard drives. It also offers recovery from SSD, RAID, Apple, and mobile hard drives.
This secure digital data recovery service supports a wide range of operating systems including all Windows versions, all Apple macOS versions, Linux, UNIX, and VMware, among a lot of others.
The recovery process meets the manufacturer’s requirements and does not void the original warranty enjoyed on the hard drive. Supported manufacturers for this service include Samsung, Western Digital, Seagate, Hitachi Global Storage, Toshiba, LaCie, and Fujitsu, among a lot of others.
ACE Remote Data Recovery provides remote data recovery services, one of the rarest data recovery options in the market. Critical data is recovered from virtual environments like VMware ESX/ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, Oracle VM, and Citrix XenServer, among others.
You are equipped with a remote recovery manager (ARRM) that works with multiple hypervisors, virtual machine containers, file systems, databases, and mail systems.
This remote technology creates a connection between your computer and ACE to facilitate recovery, is available 24/7, and helps you save time as it doesn’t sacrifice speed. ACE Remote Data Recovery also offers tape duplication and on-site emergency recovery services.
Pricing
Your pricing options with ACE come through four different plans: standard recovery, expedited recovery, emergency recovery, and remote recovery.
The standard recovery plan takes 3-5 business days and comes with free diagnostics. The expedited recovery plan is for quick turnaround and takes 1-2 business days. The emergency recovery plan is handled by dedicated ACE team engineers, and the remote recovery is accompanied by the ARRM.
All prices are determined by a quote and an additional fee of $99 is paid if the factory seal of the hard drive is broken.
2. DataTech Labs
Best Hard Drive Recovery Service with Dedicated Recovery Options For Natural Disasters
Trusted by NASA, Harvard University, Western Union, and the American Red Cross, DataTech Labs is a top service that offers recovery for a wide range of devices and components. Serving as a general data recovery service, DataTech Labs does not just offer recoveries from computer hard drives but also offers recoveries from RAID arrays and servers, flash drives, SSD cards, and tapes.
DataTech Labs offers a free evaluation for single hard drives if the drive has not been previously opened up, exposed to air, or damaged by water or fire. After this free evaluation and diagnosis, the data recovery service contacts you and presents you with a list of feasible recovery options to choose from.
These recovery options come in three forms: Logical Hard Drive Data Recovery, Physical Hard Drive Data Recovery, and Hard Drive Data Recovery from a Natural Disaster.
- The Logical Hard Drive Recovery option serves its purpose where the hard drive still works but, due to corruption, virus infection, lost partition, file deletion, or accidental reformatting, data remains inaccessible.
- The Physical Hard Drive Data Recovery option exists to fix situations where a physically damaged head, motor, or PCB board causes the hard drive to physically fail.
- The Hard Drive Data Recovery covers damages or failures arising from natural disasters like a flood, hurricane, or lightning strike, among others.
DataTech Labs’ recovery processes support Windows, Apple, Linux, and UNIX operating systems alongside multiple popular computer brands and hard drive manufacturers. This data recovery service is also ISO 5 cleanroom certified, meaning both your hardware components and data remain safe with it.
Pricing
Pricing is determined by a quote.
3. Datarecovery.com
Affordable Hard Drive Recovery Service with Fastest Turnaround
Datarecovery.com is another top data recovery service that offers you additional services like RAID recovery, flash media recovery, tape recovery, and mobile device recovery alongside its HDD recovery services.
Trusted by the US Army, NASA, and a lot of government agencies, hospitals, data centers, small businesses, and fortune 500 companies, this professional data recovery service remains safe through the implementation of ISO 5 cleanroom technologies. It also offers recovery for SSD drives.
For your hard drive recovery, Datarecovery.com runs a diagnostic, sends you a quote once the cause is pinpointed. It then proceeds to fix the damage which may have been a result of mechanical failure, water, electronic issues, and file corruption. Your files are tested to ensure they are in good shape and then transferred to any external device of your choice.
Datarecovery.com offers an expedited recovery service for quick hard drive recoveries which take 24 hours to complete.
Pricing
Prices are determined by a quote and you only pay the full quoted price if all your files come in good condition. For expedited recoveries, an evaluation fee still applies even when your data is not fully recovered.
4. Disk Doctors
Best Hard Drive Recovery Service that Offers Very Cost-Friendly Services
Alongside external hard drive recovery services, Disk Doctors is another general service provider that offers you a barrage of data and device recovery options.
Disk Doctors additionally offers multiple RAID recovery services, phone repair services covering water damage, broken screens, and dead phones. It also offers file recovery services covering deleted files, mail recovery, Ms office files, and music files, among others.
Your hard drive recovery comes with a free, same-day evaluation report accompanied by the price quote. The list of recoverable files is presented to you before you make payment.
This hard drive recovery service uses the ISO 5 classroom technology in the whole recovery process. You enjoy free nationwide shipping across the US. The free shipping services are exclusive to FedEx and UPS shipments and cover when you are both sending and receiving your hard drive. It is accompanied by package tracking options.
Supported hard drive interfaces include PATA, SATA, SCSI, SAS, FC-AL, and USB. Disk Doctors’ recovery process also supports Windows, Mac, UNIX, Linux, and Novell, as well as multiple hard drive manufacturers including Seagate, Samsung, Sony, Fujitsu, and Toshiba, among a lot of others.
Pricing
The cost of recovering your hard drive is determined by a quote.
5. Secure Data Recovery Services
Most Secure Hard Drive Recovery Service
Secure Data Recovery Services offers you extremely secure and professional data recovery services evidenced by its multiple certifications from ISO, AICPA/SOC, GSA, and FIPS.
This data recovery service additionally provides you with RAID, virtualization, and enterprise storage recovery. It also provides you with database repair, mobile device repair, digital forensics, and tape data migration services.
Hard drive recovery options span desktop data, laptop data, external hard drive data, and SSD data. Recovery processes also support Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems as well as hard drives manufactured by Seagate, Western Digital, Samsung, and Toshiba.
You have access to emergency recovery options offered through same-day and on-site repairs. Users also enjoy free diagnostics, free inbound shipments, and a chance to make payments only after recovery is completed.
Pricing
The data recovery service determines prices by a quote.
Features to Look for in a Hard Drive Recovery Service
Considering certain important service offerings before choosing a data recovery service greatly determines the quality of service you get and, consequently, your chances of success. So what are these conditions?
1. ISO 5 Cleanroom
Firstly, a data recovery service with a cleanroom remains the best choice. A cleanroom is a work area with controlled temperature and humidity, characterized by plastic walls and ceilings, external lighting, and a continuous influx of clean dust-free air. It is dedicated to protecting sensitive equipment from contamination.
An ISO 5 cleanroom remains the best certification possessed by top data recovery services in regards to this feature.
2. Upfront Estimated Charges
Upfront estimated charges are also important as they help you measure the cost and the value for money you are getting from the recovery process before proceeding with it.
3. Multiple Hard Drive Recovery Labs
A hard drive recovery service controlling multiple labs spread across a wide geographical area (or located close to you) also makes inbound and outbound delivery of your hard drive less of an issue.
4. Hard Drive Speciality
The types of devices the service specializes in also helps you determine if it has enough skill and experience to recover data from your hard drive.
5. Remote Recovery Option
One particular feature that is not common with many professional data recovery services is the remote recovery option. Only the very best services offer this and it helps you save time, energy, and other resources but with increased costs. ACE Data Recovery is a hard drive data recovery service that offers a rapid remote recovery option.
6. Emergency Services
Emergency services through immediately deployed on-site technicians or expedited recovery is also an important feature to look out for.
Some other features and service offerings to look out for include an option to digitally transfer extracted or recovered digitally, and certifications from popular manufacturers as this helps prevent loss of warranty.
How to Choose a Data Recovery Service
With a lot of data recovery services in the market today, choosing the best data recovery service that truly solves all your issues proves to be an unavoidable hard nut to crack. Nonetheless, every individual case of data loss has its peculiarities.
These specific factors boil down to the type of device, manufacturer of the device, the operating system previously run on it, and the type of physical damage if any.
1. Check Years of Operation of the Data Recovery Service
After determining your peculiar needs from a data recovery service, the next step is then to check how long the data recovery company has remained in operation. Longevity in the field or market does not just indicate experience in dealing with data recovery issues but also signals great service rendering.
2. Check for Hardware Safety and Data Security
The safety of your hardware and the security of your data is important when choosing a data recovery service. Check the data recovery service you want to use track record with other users to see if it is reliable or engages in irregular practices such as data theft and selling your data to third parties.
Cleanrooms are important, and a data recovery service that operates them on-site makes the whole process less stressful on your hardware. Transportation from one location to another is greatly reduced and services like these have all the necessary tools to make a variety of fixes.
A strict security protocol or certification from top regulatory bodies shows that your data is always safe. The top security certifications relevant in data recovery include ISO, AICPA, SOC, FIPS, and HIPAA, among others.
3. Additional Data Recovery Services
The best data recovery service for you should have a wide range of data recovery services. Due to an unfortunate event, you may have additionally lost data on other devices apart from your hard drive.
Choosing a service that additionally offers recoveries from RAID arrays, file server drives, tablets, cameras, flash drives, and SD cards means you have more recovery options and, consequently, more data restored. You should also recognize how transparent the pricing is.
Hard Drive Recovery Services FAQ
Hard drives work through systematic cooperation between different components they are made up of, with the most important being the platter on a spindle, a “read and write” head, magnetism, and a circuit board.
The platter serves as the most important component and it is a hard material (either made up of ceramic, aluminum, or glass) that spins very fast on a spindle. It is coated with metal so that the magnetic “read and write” heads interact with it.
There are two “read and write” heads for each platter and they write data in 1s and 0s in a very organized form by moving over the platter. Large hard drives make use of more than one platter to store data, with them stacked on each other (with space in between) and each platter having two heads.
Bits of data are arranged in circular paths called tracks with each track broken up into sectors. A map of these sectors is stored on the hard drive (called the File Allocation Table in Windows OS). It is used by the computer to locate free sectors on the platter and store new data or read the exact location of stored data.
The circuit at the bottom of the hard drive acts as the link between the electronic computer and the mechanical hard drive components.
Data recovery is simply the process of restoring data that has been lost, corrupted, accidentally deleted, or made inaccessible by an unfortunate occurrence or event.
This process is completed through three methods:
– Off-the-shelve recovery software which regular individuals purchase and use to fix minor issues
– Data recovery services that make use of advanced software for much deeper access to the hard drive to extract data
– A data recovery technician opens up the hard drive and makes physical changes to the hardware components of the hard drive.
The chances of successful data recovery depend largely on the file system of the device in question.
Data recovery works through software that uses deterministic and heuristic algorithms to find the location of deleted or affected files and attempts to recover as much of the data as possible.
Where the problem goes beyond software, a data recovery technician makes changes to the affected physical components in a way that the data is not affected.
Prices for recovering data tend to be on the high side. Apart from offering advice about how to prevent data loss, data insurance companies also double down as data recovery services without you having to pay extra. Nonetheless, these only translate to costs for you, and the best measure against data loss is a real-time backup of your data.
Data recovery with top services takes between 1-5 working days. This depends on the difficulty level associated with your recovery and the service option you choose.
Although a lot of companies claim a 95% to 98% success rate, there is no way to account for the exact success of recovering each individual file.
For minor issues, recovery fees cost an average of $100 while the more complex issues cost an average of $300. For expedited recovery, remote recovery, on-site recovery, or other advanced recovery options, prices can go up to $900 or even exceed it. Nonetheless, prices are generally determined by a quote.
Giving out access to your data to third parties is not a good idea. Many data recovery services claim to be safe but that is far from the truth. Before choosing a data recovery service, check out its service’s privacy policies.
Also, look out for certifications from regulatory bodies. Certifications assure you of safeguarded data.
A well-trained data technician only inevitably has access to the file names and the technician does not have any need to open up files.
Was This Article Helpful?
Anastasia Belyh
Anastasia has been a professional blogger and researcher since 2014. She loves to perform in-depth software reviews to help software buyers make informed decisions when choosing project management software, CRM tools, website builders, and everything around growing a startup business.
Anastasia worked in management consulting and tech startups, so she has lots of experience in helping professionals choosing the right business software.