Are people allowed to ask about how much it can cost?

I have a Seagate 7200.11 1 terabyte drive with bad heads (according to research from this forum, the drive spins up, clicks about 8 times and then spins down).

How much should this cost, ballpark, to get the heads replaced and recover about 50gb?

Thanks!

what's your budget?

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Hard Disk Drive, SSD, USB Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

My budget is irrelevant, I'm asking what a fair price is for this kind of service, vs a rip-off/gouging price.

More than $800.

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Hard Disk Drive, SSD, USB Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

Thank you. The data is not worth $800. Heck, my whole computer is probably not worth $800 anymore.

There you go.

But then again, it is just a biased opinion of the 7200.11 model.

There are many variables that could make a quote go way below $800 or much more higher than $800.

If want to be sure, send it to a place that does a free diagnostic and get a price. Then you will have a better understanding.

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Hard Disk Drive, SSD, USB Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

As a matter of interest, can anybody tell me why people compare the value of their data to the value of their computer hardware?

I've heard this from customers for years and I still don't get it

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Yeah, we get that too.

"But I can buy a new 500gb USB for £50!!!!"

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Honestly, I don't know why I said that. I think I'd spend, at most about $200 to get back the small fraction of the data I wish I had mirrored to my server, and mainly because I don't know if I have the memory cards the data came from anymore.

It's certainly not worth half a months pay, to me, to get it back.

If you would have mentioned the $200 from the get go, then we would squared this away much earlier. But you said it was not relevant. It is actually.

Best wishes

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Hard Disk Drive, SSD, USB Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

Well, I said budget is irrelevant because it was. I can pay upwards of $800, I'm simply not going to. IOW, my budget is limited by what I'm willing to pay, versus what I'm able to pay.

If I had said "about $200" you might have said "Not happening.", and I still wouldn't have had my question answered.

Thank you for your replies, labtech.

Same here. "But I can buy a new laptop with €500". OK. Buy it then. And your data will magically appear inside your new laptop.

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Hear it every day of my life and it drives me up the wall.

Next time just say a breast implant probably costs a couple of Euro but it's costs 4000 Euros to fit them

People like it put in context that's how we measure things.

Now we could say:-

Well, the honeymoon and wedding pictures that you spent 15k GBP on are luckily recovered and it will only cost you a fraction of that

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All went well until I plugged the drive in.

Honestly, even ~800 is a low quote for that kind of drive.

I'd expect 1200-1600. Could be more if it was dropped/motor jammed, etc.

Of course... did not want to scare him to badly. He is scared enough with that one.

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Hard Disk Drive, SSD, USB Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

True, however I follow the policy it is better set realistic expectations from first contact; no surprises if you can help it.

Some reputable people may do it for ~$800 if it is not too bad.

I definitely don't.

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Hard Disk Drive, SSD, USB Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

It's quite simple. People spend X dollars on the computer and accessories. A done and done purchase.

Then a minor mishap happens and all the data is lost. Now they have to spend 2x what their hardware costs to fix a minor failure, like a disk that isn't working. They don't understand why it costs a small amount to purchase something vs. a large amount to fix a cheap-ass $50 part.

This lends credence as to why backups are king and hardware is disposable.

I like to use this analogy: It doesn't take skill or money to make babies, but it costs $100,000 to fix a congenital heart disorder in that baby.

Or if you spend 20k on a new car, yet the mechanic asks for 30k to fix it. It doesn't make sense. Ahh, but the mechanic is making the trip to the desert road 500 miles away from civilization. Enabling you to continue your journey with cargo and passengers intact.

So why not bring a toolbox and spare parts (backup software and images) along for the ride? If something breaks you effect a repair (restore) and continue on your way. No dramatics, no heroic rescues required.

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This topic interests me and I'd like to get an idea of 'average' recovery cost relating to the country it's being provided in. From my side, South Africa:

Based on stats provided by government for 2012, the average income per household bread winner per month here is $1,100.00

If we take the example in the post here (1TB 3.5" with bad heads) my cost for this would be $380.00

My pricing is generally 50% cheaper than the local competition. This job would cost 1/3rd of an average person's monthly income.

Let's assume that this HDD example has a bad head, straight head swap yields full recovery. I see figures here ranging from $800 to $1,600 which is way off my figure. My recovery services are 'cheap', but either the rest of you abroad have a much higher average monthly income, or recovery services are just generally more expensive in other parts of the world. Or, or, or...

Sure, it's not as simple as the above, there are many other factors to consider, but it would be interesting to see numbers from the rest of you.

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