Which is pretty much what I said it would cost. Companies like $300DDR like to make their money through hidden charges. I just quote what it will really cost upfront and let you take it or leave it.

As to what you're saying Fzabkar, it may be a quick firmware fix to get the drive operational. But the unknown factor that we have to always price for is that something (likely a million bad sectors) caused the drive to become slow responding. Which means it may tie up equipment (PC-3000 or DDI4 w/ USB addon) to clone around the damaged areas.

I'd gladly repair just the slow responding for $100 if that's all you wanted, but then when it fails completely because the customer doesn't have the tools/experience to clone around the bad sectors I'll be facing bad reviews, lawsuits, etc.

So we always price planning to do a complete recovery and even factor in the possibility that we could quote for a simple slow responding fix, and end up needing to do a headswap. Thus the need to charge $450 for this type of procedure.

I know some companies ($300 DDR) would just go back to the customer and demand more money after the heads fail while cloning, but we aren't that sort of company. I've never yet had to go back and up the price on a customer.

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Data Medics - Hard Drive, SSD, and RAID Data Recovery Service Company

Guys,
I can see healthy discussion going on here. Please don't fight. I can see that every party has its truth and I cannot disagree to comments and advises you all give.
I, myself, am on clients side, and I cannot understand too expensive quotes like $1500 and more, but I understand DR Pros as well - there is some factors of risk and effort.
I have learned a lot of lessons. Thank you all for that. And I will not stop here - I want to learn more.
But regarding my WD drive, tomorrow I will take it to one local DR office to diagnose and see what they will say. I will keep in mind all your suggestions and "slow fix" option.
I'll keep my fingers crossed.
Please feel free to continue discussion and giving advises.