Data Recovery Costs by Device & Issue

Professional data recovery services typically cost anywhere from £100 to £300 per hour. When determining the cost of a recovery, we take into account several factors. For example, the type of device, type of failure, the physical state of the device, and more. Whether it's due to a software issue or damaged parts, the process of recovery may be more difficult or a simple fix. Typically, recoveries can take three to nine hours. Again, this depends on factors like the type of device and type of failure. The exact price will vary depending on the extent of the damage.

We analysed thousands of data recovery jobs to determine the average time it takes to recover data by device type and issue. You can use the job time and hourly rate to get a sense of how much data recovery costs in your situation.

Recovery Costs by Device Type

Data loss can occur due to both physical failure and software errors.

Table showing average recovery hours and ratio of software errors and physical failure recovery cases.

Solid State Drive Recovery Cost

SSD data recovery can take about 4 hours for software errors and an average of 7.4 hours for physical failure.

Solid State Drives contain small intricate parts, commonly known as surface mount technology. These tiny parts and fragile circuit boards can make it challenging to repair and require careful handling.

Physical failure accounts for nearly 61% of all SSD data recovery cases, while software errors account for about 39%.

Hard Drive Recovery Cost

Hard drive data recovery takes an average of 3.4 hours if it’s a software error and an average of 5.7 hours if it’s a physical failure.

Physical failures like broken read/write heads, platter damage, or motor failures make up nearly 82% of our data recovery cases. At the same time, software errors were the cause of 18% of HDD cases.

Removable Media Recovery Cost

Recovering data from removable media like flash drives (USB drives), SD cards, and memory cards takes an average of 2.7 for software errors and 9.5 hours for physical failure.

Data loss from a physical failure takes significantly longer because of the difficulty of working with small, delicate parts.

Mobile Data Recovery Cost

Mobile phone data recovery takes about 3 hours for software errors and 7 hours for physical failure.

About 80% of the time, data issues on mobile devices stem from physical failures that require logic board repair — a time-consuming and challenging procedure due to new nanotechnology. Software errors are much quicker to fix, typically taking about half the time.

Factors That Influence Data Recovery Costs

Devices require thorough diagnostics to assess the cause of failure and the extent of damage. Multiple factors can impact the cost of data recovery. Your actual cost will depend on the specific needs of your case.

What Impacts the Cost of Data Recovery

Type of failure: As you can see from the data above, software issues are typically quicker and easier to fix, making them less expensive than hardware issues. On that same note, a broken part may be easier to replace than a corroded element.
Device type: Devices with small, delicate parts or new technology may require specialised tools, techniques, and expertise. We use proprietary tools developed for each specific model to help with recovery.
Replacement part requirements: Replacing damaged parts can increase the cost. This often depends on the manufacturer, date of manufacture, make model, and availability, among other things.
Facilities and equipment: A clean room is essential in data recovery, preventing dust particles or other contaminants from damaging the delicate parts of the hardware during the recovery process. There are multiple cleanroom classification levels, categorised by the particle count in the room. They require upkeep to ensure they remain safe to use.
Professional expertise: Highly skilled data recovery specialists may have higher fees for their specialised knowledge and services.
Security measures: If the data recovery process involves additional security measures, such as encryption or password protection, specialised techniques may be required.
Compliance requirements: Companies in specific industries must follow compliance regulations, especially ones dealing with something as personal as data loss. Secure Data Recovery is certified and provides public proof of our certifications and compliance, so you can rest assured your sensitive data is safe with us.
Recovery attempt: The first recovery attempt is the most important. It is possible to damage your device further each time an attempt is made to recover the data. The best solution for critical data recovery is reaching out to a professional.

Should You Attempt to Recover Data Yourself?

If you experience data loss, we recommend contacting data recovery experts immediately. The first recovery attempt is crucial, providing the best opportunity and highest potential for a successful recovery.

While you might recover some data on your own, an unsuccessful attempt will complicate the situation further, making it much harder — or impossible — for a data recovery company to get your data back once your device is in professional hands. Using do-it-yourself methods and unproven providers also runs the risk of causing permanent data loss.

Secure Data Recovery’s Diagnostic Process

Secure Data Recovery has a team of specialised experts ready to help. Getting started is just a call or click away. We provide in-lab, onsite, and remote data recovery services.

To give you an idea of how our services work, here are the general steps we take to recover your data in lab.

Tell us about your issue. Reach out to us either by submitting a request form or giving us a call at 0800 102 6925.
Drop off or send in the device. Stop by one of our convenient locations in London, Birmingham, Liverpool, or Manchester to drop off your device, or send it in with a prepaid shipping label.
Wait for your device to be processed and diagnosed. Once we receive your device, we take photos and assign a tracking number to your case. Then, we will conduct a comprehensive analysis of your device so we can determine the cause of data loss and find recovery solutions.
Receive a quote. After diagnostics are run, we provide a no-obligation quote and estimated turnaround time so that you know our data recovery prices up front.
Data is recovered and returned. We use state-of-the-art facilities and software to recover your data. Once data recovery is complete, data will be returned to you via the cloud or an encrypted storage device. We also send your device back or dispose of it safely.

Get a Data Recovery Quote Today

Dealing with device failure and data loss is incredibly stressful, especially when it involves important files, but you don’t have to go through it alone. With convenient locations in London, Birmingham, Manchester, and Liverpool, Secure Data Recovery is here for you and ready to help.

Whether it’s an SSD, hard drive, removable media, mobile phone, or another device, a hardware failure or a software issue, our expertise can help you recover as much of your lost data as possible.

If you need data recovery services, please reach out to us for a quote by either submitting a request form or giving us a call at 0800 102 6925. Our free, no-obligation estimates are backed by our “No Data, No Recovery Fee” guarantee.

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Data Recovery Knowledge Base