The answers that people are ringing up for; the complete price list; and the four things which cannot be done (all of this is to save you from having to pay someone to find these out).
Once the free diagnostic is completed (and not before), the figure is written down. All prices shown on this page exclude VAT.
You're charged nothing to look, and there is no obligation after that. You'll receive your fault class, what we anticipate being recovered and one quote amount.
There are no changes made to your quote after opening the drive. No percentage of data recovered, no hourly rate and no surcharge for a difficult afternoon.
If your recovery fails, you owe us nothing. Any time a drive has to be opened (or donor parts bought) at a cost upfront, a 50 percent deposit applies and you are told before proceeding with the process.
Approximately one out of every nine jobs is unrecoverable. This information is made available to you at 48 hours as opposed to week 3. In that case, you will incur no charges.
Soldered Apple storage on a dead board. On T2 Macs (and those using the newer Apple Silicon chips), the encryption keys for the machine's encrypted storage are “fused” onto a security chip embedded in the logic board. When that board will not turn on, there simply is no access to the data at any price. Because we only service removable drives, we do not accept any type of soldered storage in any event.
Encryption without the key. There is no back door created when using Microsoft’s BitLocker, Apple’s FileVault or a proper implementation of full-disk encryption. While having the correct key(s) allows you to access your encrypted data, not having the required key(s) means no one, including us, can access that data.
TRIMmed SSD deletions. Once a solid state disk controller has properly deleted the free space (blocks) from an SSD, they cannot be accessed by any laboratory or software. That being said, whether this has happened is determined during the diagnostic process.
Current ransomware strains. No one can decrypt them. Recovery occurs from everything the encryption passed over, often a significant amount.
Including the written verdict, yes. If the answer is that it is not worth trying then you receive this response (instead of a quote) and no payment is made.
No. The number quoted after diagnostics are completed is the same as the number on the bill. A quote that may increase is only an estimate.
48 hours for a written conclusion; 1-2 additional working days for recovery of data, with a maximum of 4 working days per individual drive. Additional time may be required for multi-drive disk arrays. This is indicated in the written conclusion.
Never. Percentage-based agreements give a lab a vested interest in both how much your data is worth and whether or not you believe that recovery of data is possible.
Via new, encrypted storage media or via secure hyperlink, along with a file listing viewable prior to making any payment. Any original media is held for a period of 14 days; unless instructed otherwise, it is then securely deleted.
Yes. Purchase orders are created prior to commencement of work; invoices are produced on account; an NDA is executed before the media arrives; and there is only one named engineer involved throughout.