What is the Average Cost of Hard Drive Data Recovery?

Data recovery is expensive; that much is obvious to anyone who's ever set up a case with a major data recovery company. However, there are dozens of ways that a hard drive can fail, and many customers want to know what the average cost of data recovery is on a single hard drive.

The trouble is that most data recovery companies are extremely secretive, and they don't exactly give this information out. It has a bad effect on their business model; if a customer knows that their data recovery case costs more than the average, then they're less likely to approve the data recovery. It's therefore difficult to get a straight answer.

You're in luck. I know the average cost of hard drive data recovery, and I'm only going to make you read a few paragraphs for it.

The Average Cost of Data Recovery

After working at a data recovery company for a few years (I was in customer service, then business management), I dealt with a lot of clients and saw a lot of price tags. Many customers would forward along quotes that they'd received for their cases from other data recovery companies, too, and I've kept up with the changes in the industry. My point is that I've got a decent idea of what I'm talking about, here, and I know that if I simply say "hard drive data recovery varies in price," you'll be justifiably angry at this article, so rather than doing that, I'll tell you an actual number that I know to be fairly accurate. Here's the caveat: I can't tell you which data recovery company confirmed this number, but it has been confirmed for the 2010 data recovery market.

Alright, are you ready for it? The average cost of physical hard drive data recovery is about $800-1000 right now.
Yep. That was simple, wasn't it?

Factors Affecting The Average Cost of Data Recovery

Now, here's the disclaimer that you knew would come with the information that you wanted: there are a ton of factors that can affect the average cost of a particular data recovery case, such as turnaround time, the nature of the failure, the extent of damage to the hard drive's platters, and the disposition of the data recovery engineer who evaluates your case. These factors will make a difference in your case's cost no matter where you send the hard drive, unless you send it to a company that offers flat rate data recovery.

So use the $800-1000 point as a general idea of the cost of a standard data recovery procedure for a physically failed hard drive, and remember to get a few quotes before you send your hard drive off to be recovered. You'll get a much better rate by talking to a few data recovery companies, and you'll have a much better understanding of what you're buying.

Have any questions about data recovery? Send them to me in a message, or post a comment below.