Hard Disk Data Recovery Cost
Every day, our data recovery consultants answer 100+ phone calls. In most cases, a client calls after they:
- Accidentally deleted some crucial data
- See an error message related to the hard drive
- Hear strange sounds from the hard drive
- Find that their hard drive can't be read by their computer
- Accidentally drop the hard drive or cause physical damage in another way
- Can't access important data on their hard drive
After describing the problem, the client then expects the answers to these questions
- How much does HDD recovery cost to get my data back ?
- How much time will you take to recover my hard drive data?
- Do I need to pay anything for the diagnostics of the data loss issue?
- Can you recover data from my physically damaged hard drive?
- Can I use data recovery software to recover my data myself?
Stellar® Data Recovery brings you every data recovery option you could need, at a transparent and reasonable data recovery cost.
Our data recovery charges start from ₹3,500.
This estimate is extremely generalized and doesn't consider any of the variable factors of HDD data recovery price.
In case the problem is accidental data deletion, you might be able to recover it using Stellar® Data Recovery software. For more, data recovery prices start from ₹3,999 per month.
For a more accurate data recovery cost estimate, read on.
This is our attempt to maintain transparency of hard disk data recovery price.
This information will also help you make sense of the vast difference in data recovery cost estimates of professional services, and of makeshift cabin-style data recovery services available locally.
6 Key Factors That Influence Data Recovery Costs
1. Type of Data Storage Device
- A major proportion of the hard drives we receive for data recovery have storage space of 1TB or higher.
- Next in line are somewhat older hard drives of 256GB-1TB.
- Other storage media include SSDs, USB flash drives, RAID server disks, and secure digital cards.
Each storage media type differs vastly. It may be easier to recover data from a 2 TB hard drive as compared to a 128 GB SSD, or an 8 GB secure digital card.
Hard drives also vary in terms of their:
- Type (SATA, eSATA, USB PATA, SAS, SCSI, IDE Fiber Channel, Firewire)
- Platter size (2.5-inch and 3.5-inch), and
- Interface (parallel ATA (PATA, also called IDE or EIDE), SATA, SCSI, Fiber Channel, and SAS).
- Request a free quote of data recovery costs for your hard drive.
2. Problem Type: Logical, Physical, and Firmware
- Install Stellar® Data Recovery software on a hard drive. (This shouldn’t be the hard drive from which you want to recover lost data)
- Connect the hard drive from which you want to recover data as an external drive.
- Use Stellar® Data Recovery software to scan your drive, preview your files, and recover your data.
In some cases, even logical errors can be challenging.
- For instance, the data recovery costs will increase when your hard drive is encrypted using special encryption technology. Our engineers need more R&D time to decrypt.
- Sometimes, even the recovered data is corrupt. In such cases, we might have to attempt repair functionality so that your recovered files are accessible.
- This necessitates further investigation and logical treatment of the data for complete and meaningful recovery.
Note: Stellar® data recovery professionals—because of their experience—know the most common encryption algorithms, and can recover data from your encrypted hard drive.
Data recovery costs in case of physical damage
- To recover data in case of physical damage to the hard drive, the procedure is complex.
- Opening your hard drive for diagnostics in an open environment is fatal for its fragile components, and could worsen the damage.
- Stellar® Data Recovery experts rely on specialized tools and state-of-the-art Class 100 Clean Room lab to operate on your physically damaged hard drive.
In most cases, successful data recovery demands a combination of logical and physical recovery expertise.
Data loss situation | Problem Type |
Logical | Encryption/Corrupted data/Repair of damaged multimedia files |
Physical | Scratched platter/Availability of spares/ damaged read/write head, other damage |
3. Storage Media Capacity
The cost of data recovery is directly proportional to the storage capacity of media.
Why?
You need to understand the data recovery process first. Our engineers:
- Open your hard drive in a state-of-the-art Class 100 Clean Room
- Identify damaged physical components
- Find matching donor components from our massive library of 15,000+ donor hard drives
- Replace damaged components with healthy donor components
- Operate the damaged hard disk at a highly-reduced RPM speed, to prevent further data loss
- Create an image of the damaged hard disk
- Use data recovery techniques and software to recover data from the hard drive image
The answer to your question is linked to the 5th step—operating the hard drive at a reduced speed.
- Normally, the time to read a completely healthy 1 TB hard drive is 4 hours.
- In recovery mode (at heavily reduced speed), the time to read becomes more than 12 hours. Depending on the extent of damage, this could even be 2-4 days.
For all this time, we need to:
- Deploy sufficient engineering and managerial oversight,
- Consume equivalent computing resources, and
- Use another hard drive (where we store the image).
So, a flat fee for hard drive data recovery isn't practical.
Hard drive capacity |
Factor of cost/complexity |
Less than 1TB | Spare parts are difficult to identify, find, replace, and transplant |
More than 1TB | In addition to all of the above, more machine hours are required to read data |
4. Spare Transplantation for Hard Drive
Availability of spares affects the cost of data recovery. These spare parts include (but aren’t limited to):
- Read/write head
- Head actuator
- Spindle motor
- Logic board
- Cables and connectors
- Configuration items (like jumpers and switches)
Let's consider an example.
You need data recovered from a damaged 256 GB hard drive purchased in 2017.
Today, it's likely this hard drive model has been discontinued and hence obsolete. Its components (such as read/write head) are hard to find.
You can expect successful data recovery with Stellar, even for old hard drives. That’s because we have a library of 15,000+ hard drive models. This means we have the replacement parts necessary to recover data from any kind of hard drive.
In fact, for every 2 hard drives we process, we use spares from 3 hard drives for data recovery.
5. Tampered Hard Drive
Tampering is commonplace, because of unprofessional and untrained data recovery practitioners.
All tampering isn’t intentional. Sometimes, unprofessional data recovery service providers haphazardly experiment with diagnostic tactics. This recklessness can further damage to the hard drive.
Note: These tactics are useful only in very specific cases, and shouldn’t be used for experimental diagnostics.
Some of these tactics are:
- Trying to reboot from the same drive that recently failed.
- Excessive switching on and off (which can worsen the scratching on your hard drive)
- Running a file system repair utility (such as chkdsk) in case the OS is able to read the drive.
- Opening the case of the hard drive outside a state-of-the-art Class 100 Clean Room
- Using unlicensed recovery software to read data from a hard drive with many bad sectors
- Replacing the PCB of your failed drive.
Chances of data recovery from hard drisk (tampered) price are meager as compared to a non-tampered drive. The extent and complexity of repairs required for a tampered hard drive are massive. This increases the cost of data recovery from a tampered hard drive.
6. Expected Turnaround Time
Data Recovery charges also vary as per your urgency to recover your data. If the demand to retrieve data is immediate, the cost of recovery will be high.
Generally, data recovery from a 4TB hard drive could take up to a month of effort. If you need this done in 2 weeks, we need to deploy additional human and technology resources. This increases the recovery cost.
Solid-State Drive (SSD) Data Recovery Cost
SSDs don't use a platter (as in hard drives) to store data. The absence of moving parts (such as the read/write head and spindle) means the SSD is more robust (less noise, less heating, less friction).
Think of an SSD as a combination of several interconnected ICs. An SSD is essentially 4 components: controller, cache, chipsets, and capacitor.
The data recovery cost for SSD is more as compared to HDDs. This is because:
- SSDs have a more complex data storage architecture as compared to standard hard drives.
- The TRIM feature makes data recovery from SSDs more complex
- Readability of the chipset is crucial for recovery, and this can only be determined after a data recovery expert has diagnosed the SSD
- Locating data on an SSD is more complicated than on an HDD.
- Damage to flash chips of an SSD is difficult to overcome
- Memory chip density, error correction code variables, encryption, and encoding variations complicate matters further
SD Card Data Recovery Cost
Most commonly used flash data storage devices in India are SD cards, eMMC, Pen drives, CF cards, etc. These portable storage media are generally used to store and transfer data such as documents, presentations, photos, videos, etc. from one device to another.
- For simple data loss cases, data recovery charges for SD cards and flash memory devices start from ₹3,500.
- Data recovery cost for SD cards increases with the storage capacity of the card.
Customers have a mindset that data recovery from SD cards, pen drives, and memory cards should be cheap. They compare the selling cost of these cards with the data recovery cost. However, this is not the case. One should not compare the price of the data storage device with the cost of data recovery from the same device.
In SD cards, memory cards, and CF cards, the most common reason for data loss is device formatting, file deletion (logical case), and sometimes, physical damage.
For logical cases, you can also try our DIY professional data recovery software.
In case of a physically damaged SD card or other flash storage drive, only a data recovery expert can help you in getting back your data. There is no alternative except to opt for a professional data recovery service.
Data Loss Problem | Stellar SD Card Data Recovery Solution |
Logical | Data Recovery Software Photo Recovery Software Video Repair Software |
Physical damage |
Visit Stellar Data Recovery Lab |
The data recovery price of a physically damaged SD card will depend on the type of damage.
Data recovery from a physically damaged SD card is a more complex job and hence, data recovery charges are higher.
Data Recovery Charges for Hard Drives, SSD, SD Cards in Major Indian Cities
Following data recovery charges are applicable at our data recovery centers in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Kochi, Mumbai, Noida, Pune, and Vashi.
Data Loss Problem | SD Card Recovery Price List |
Ahmedabad |
Ahmedabad Data Recovery Cost starts from ₹ 3,500 (Varies as per capacity of device) |
Bangalore | Bangalore Data Recovery Cost starts from ₹ 3,500 (Varies as per capacity of device) |
Chandigarh | Chandigarh Data Recovery Cost starts from ₹ 3,500 (Varies as per capacity of device) |
Chennai | Chennai Data Recovery Cost starts from ₹ 3,500 (Varies as per capacity of device) |
Coimbatore | Coimbatore Data Recovery Cost starts from ₹ 3,500 (Varies as per capacity of device) |
Delhi | Delhi Data Recovery Cost starts from ₹ 3,500 (Varies as per capacity of device) |
Gurgaon | Gurgaon Data Recovery Cost starts from ₹ 3,500 (Varies as per capacity of device) |
Hyderabad | Hyderabad Data Recovery Cost starts from ₹ 3,500 (Varies as per capacity of device) |
Kolkata | Kolkata Data Recovery Cost starts from ₹ 3,500 (Varies as per capacity of device) |
Kochi | Kochi Data Recovery Cost starts from ₹ 3,500 (Varies as per capacity of device) |
Mumbai | Mumbai Data Recovery Cost starts from ₹ 3,500 (Varies as per capacity of device) |
Noida | Noida Data Recovery Cost starts from ₹ 3,500 (Varies as per capacity of device) |
Pune | Pune Data Recovery Cost starts from ₹ 3,500 (Varies as per capacity of device) |
Vashi | Vashi Data Recovery Cost starts from ₹ 3,500 (Varies as per capacity of device) |
Also Read : Why Hard Drive Data Recovery is complex?
Stellar® Data Recovery - Our Service Advantages
- No Recovery - No Charge*
- Free media pick up from your doorstep
- Includes all spares (from a library of 15,000+ donor hard drives)
- 100% safe and secure data recovery and data privacy assured
- State-of-the-art CLASS 100 Clean Room data recovery for physically damaged drives
- Dedicated accounts manager for corporate clients/RAID servers
- Job-status update - Daily/As requested
Stellar® is the world's top data recovery service provider company. In India, we serve our customers from 14 data recovery near to your located in all major cities. Our qualified data recovery experts handle all jobs inside our certified, controlled data recovery labs. We ensure 100% safety and privacy of your data.
Stellar® Data Recovery Software Price in India
Stellar® offers premium data recovery software at reasonable prices for our customers in India.
- 100% made in India
- Recover any lost data
- Dedicated products for home users as well as small and big businesses
- Available at a discounted price for Indian customers
- 1-month license offer for our top DIY data recovery software
- Unlimited data recovery for 1 month.
- Best price guarantee
Refer to stellar® data recovery prices in India:
Stellar® Data Recovery Software Cost in India
Software Name | 1 Month License | 1 Year License |
Stellar® Data Recovery for Windows | ₹3,999 | ₹4,999 |
Stellar® Data Recovery Professional for Windows | ₹4,499 | ₹5,999 |
Stellar® Data Recovery Premium for Windows | ₹4,999 | ₹7,999 |
Stellar Photo Recovery Software Cost in India
Software Name | 1 Month License | 1 Year License |
Stellar® Photo Recovery | ₹3,499 | ₹3,999 |
Stellar® Photo Recovery Professional | ₹3,999 | ₹4,999 |
Stellar® Photo Recovery Premium | ₹4,499 | ₹5,999 |
Customers can upgrade to 1-year license version of the above-mentioned software or can simply buy 1-year license version with a heavy discount.
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About The Author
Data Recovery Expert & Content Strategist