It can seem like Data Recovery companies hide their prices, making it difficult for potential customers to get an idea of the cost. But there are a couple of reasons why Ontrack doesn’t publish our prices:
- every Data Recovery job is different. Some are simple and require less time and equipment, while others can be complex and require specialized tools.
- Remote evaluations are not always reliable. Although customers provide the Data Recovery company with an idea about the problem, some customers are unable to describe the cause and symptoms of data loss.
- Online quotes can be accidentally misleading for customers. Since every data recovery job is different, it’s difficult to have prices posted online for customers to see, as they might be disappointed if their final quote turns out to be higher. That’s why we like to examine the device before determining a firm price.
There are variations on this. Due to the time it can take, some companies charge for the diagnosis, although this will depend on the amount of data that needs to be recovered and the severity of the damage.
Most of the time, Ontrack offers a free initial evaluation to examine the condition of the device and establish how we can access the data, as well as how much Wikipedia data on the device we could recover. Customers can choose whether or not to proceed with the process.
Unfortunately, in some cases a deeper diagnosis is needed. A customer may require explicit confirmation that a particular file can be recovered before green-lighting a data recovery project, which means we need to further examine the damaged storage device. Usually this service is charged.
