Why Is Data Recovery So Expensive? (Top 10 Reasons)

 

The failure of a hard drive leads to data loss that can be a bad experience for any user.

You will also find it difficult to recover your data and might get frustrated.

Data recovery requires experience, and experts charge a good amount to recover it.

Let’s discuss the major reasons data recovery is expensive.

 

Why Is Data Recovery So Expensive? (Top 10 Reasons)

 

The major factor that influences the price of data recovery is the service fees of experts who handle the data recovery process.

Experts carry out the process with care considering the importance of data, hence asking for a significant amount.

The other main reason for the data recovery’s high cost is that data recovery companies spend a huge budget to explore the methodologies to recover data.

The research and development that goes into creating and implementing these techniques require significant spending.

This plays an important part in increasing the overall pricing of data recovery.

However, the expert team and recovery methods are not the only reason data recovery is so expensive.

There are other significant reasons for such high pricing.

 

1. Data Security

 

To keep your sensitive data safe and protect it from getting leaked, companies implement high-level data security.

Maintaining your data and information safety requires repetitive updates alongside upgrades that cost a handful of money for the user to pay.

The data security process involves measures on HDD and data storage sources like encryption, cloud-backups, detection, response systems, multi-factor authentication methods, and more.

Data hacking and data breaches are the most common threats to a user’s sensitive data.

This makes data recovery a long-term process that consumes immense time and effort to prevent the data from getting hacked or breached by viruses.

Experts begin the recovery process by keeping all the data security features in mind.

Due to this, they have to take extra security measures while recovering the data.

 

2. Expert Labor

 

Since data recovery is a complicated process, you will require an expert team to get the job done.

Different teams working on a specific data recovery process are highly experienced and extensively trained to have their hands on your data storage source.

This is one of the primary factors users pay such an amount for their data recovery process as these experts are high in demand and charge a significant amount.

Data recovery experts first evaluate the nature of the data and then assess the lost data.

They are highly skillful and effective in repairing and replacing fragile components.

Also, they are highly trained to operate exclusive tools that help recover the damaged data.

These tools are costly, which results in the high pricing of the overall data recovery process.

 

3. Specialized Facilities

 

Companies offer certain specialized facilities that add to the pricing of the data recovery process.

Take a look at some of the specialized facilities certain companies offer.

 

A. Backup Facilities

The company that offers data recovery services provides backup facilities that create a backup of the entire data.

These backup copies are kept and stored in a safe place that protects them from damage or loss.

Also, these backup copies are helpful in case of catastrophic damage, loss, or hardware failure.

 

B. Journalizing Facilities

Companies provide facilities for journalizing an audit trail of database and transaction changes.

They re-establish a consistent database state in case of failure, comparing the journals with the most recent backup.

There are two basic journalizing logs.

 

i. Transaction Log

It contains a record of each transaction for all the essential data.

Also, it records and maintains each transaction’s time, code, user id, and input data values.

 

ii. Database Changed Log

The database changed log contains before and after images of records.

Before Image is to keep the record before modification while the after image is to keep the record after the modification.

 

C. Checkpoint Facility

This facility allows the database to refuse to accept any new transactions.

Checkpoint provides the necessary information to boot the system from the last point.

It performs checkpoints from commands automatically at times and helps in improving security.

 

D. Recovery Manager

It is a module of the database that ensures the restoration of the data to an appropriate condition when a failure occurs and resumes the process as per user requests.

The recovery manager also uses the backup and logs to restore the database.

 

4. Mechanical Failure

 

When a mechanical failure occurs in the storage device, you will notice different types of noises arising from the device indicating its failure.

If you suspect any such scenario while using the device, turn it off immediately to avoid permanent data loss.

The teams of high-end engineers carry out experiments to overcome this situation and reduce the chances of permanent file loss.

They reconstruct the device storage components carefully to recover the data with precision and accuracy.

This is an expensive method used in these situations, which makes the data recovery process expensive.

 

5. Replacement Elements

 

Most of the storage devices are fragile and are susceptible to damage.

For this reason, users might need to replace the elements inside the storage devices to recover the data properly.

The damage can happen to arms, heads, motors, or other components under any circumstances that can lead to issues in the data recovery process.

The replacement of elements can cause a significant uplift in the pricing of the data recovery process.

Since not every component is of the same price, and sometimes they have to be shipped from other countries, they are mostly highly priced.

The shipping and assembling of different components take a whole lot of time.

This is one of the major factors of the high pricing of the data recovery process.

 

6. Hit From A Ransomware

 

Ransomware recovery means decrypting your file’s access by paying a ransom to the cyber attackers.

Many data recovery services are available but don’t have staff who can deal with the ransomware attack efficiently and effectively.

Data recovery service providers outsource field experts to deal with a ransomware attack who follow a tested procedure to unlock the files.

This is a costly process, and experts who can handle this data recovery procedure charge a significant amount.

The experts ensure they are ready for the attacks with everything in place.

Ransomware experts secure the data, remove all the malware traces from the system, and repair the damaged files efficiently while keeping track of the attackers.

Ransomware recovery is a long-term process that can take weeks and sometimes months to decrypt files from the cyber-attack.

The expertise the accuracy of these trained engineers cost the clients a high amount in the data recovery service.

 

7. Removing Complex Failure

 

Complex failures generally occur when a computer user attempts to fix a physically damaged hard drive with commercial file utilities.

This results in a physical and logical complex failure as the utilities overwrite key data or cause extensive file corruption.

To avoid severe damage to your data, in this case, shut down your hard drive as soon as the failure occurs.

To treat these types of complex failures, data recovery engineers repair physically damaged storage device components before treating non-mechanical problems.

Hard drives are extremely sensitive devices, and tiny airborne particles can cause significant media damage if HDD components are replaced in an untreated environment.

After repairing physically damaged components, engineers make a full copy of the lost hard drive before treating logical damage with proprietary file utilities.

By making a bit-level clone, they prevent any chance of accidental media damage.

This precaution is critical when a hard drive has suffered from a complex failure, as the chances of a subsequent component failure are very high.

 

8. Cleanroom Setup

 

Companies invest a significant amount in building cleanrooms to ensure the smoothness of a data recovery process.

Safe surroundings allow the connections of shared data across multiple parties and platforms.

The cleanroom ensures to extract the data at a higher rate even from the damaged storage device.

A cleanroom setup is equipped with clean air quality, ventilation, a dust-free environment, and proper temperature to carry out the recovery task.

Therefore, the maintenance cost of such setups makes the data recovery service expensive.

The walls of the cleanroom are coated with fiber-reinforced plastic for durability.

The devices used in this setup are built from high-grade materials, which require extra maintenance.

The use of raw materials in building a cleanroom is one of the significant factors that increase the overall price of the data recovery process.

 

9. Machine Learning

 

The data loss sometimes creates enough complexities that even engineers cannot deal with it.

To solve the issue, companies set up machine learning environments to offer precision in the data recovery process.

Their capabilities are reliable enough to catch even microscopic-sized data.

The machine learning algorithms provide ease to data recovery engineers on everyday operations like carving, sorting, and analysis.

The AI-based knowledge analyzes the data and improves the capabilities of the lab.

In the data recovery process, machine learning effectively carries out operations like trace reconstruction, DE blending, and low-frequency extrapolation, which helps remove errors completely.

These algorithms approach in a highly compressed manner to retrieve quality data.

These machine learning algorithms are expensive and complex in design due to which companies set up training programs on how to implement them.

This is an extra cost to the service providers and they add to the overall pricing of the data recovery process.

 

10. Recovery Time

 

Another major reason that adds to the overall pricing of the data recovery process is the recovery time.

It takes hours to replace a storage device with a huge capacity.

The engineers make attempts to recover your data safely every 24 to 72 hours.

Another factor that lengthens the data recovery process is the environment in which the system is operated.

If a system is operated in a heated environment, the damage appears to be worst.

This additional recovery time also adds to the overall pricing of the data recovery process since larger systems and workforce are engaged for a longer period.

 

Is The Data Recovery Process Overpriced Or Fairly Priced?

 

Data recovery process is fairly priced, especially keeping in mind the cases when you have to deal with a complex factor in restoring the data.

The data recovery process from a damaged data source can cost hundreds of dollars.

It’s worth spending such an amount, considering the skills of service providers and the importance of your data.

You must determine the factors behind such high pricing of this process.

Let’s have a quick look at the major factors that influence the pricing of data recovery.

• The time engineers spend on your case.
• The damaged parts are replaced with quality parts.
• The quality data retrieval by the company.
• High-grade equipment and tools.
• Labs and cleanroom costs.

It might seem unusually expensive, but the specialized services companies that offer data recovery, guarantee the restoration of your data in most cases.

This is one of the significant factors why the data recovery process can be costly.

The exact pricing depends on the damage done to the drive, the methods implemented, and the time required to recover the data.

Moreover, there are advanced data recovery processes, which are carried out if your hard drive suffers from any electrical, logical, or mechanical loss.

This process requires cleanroom equipment to extract the data that is high priced.

Companies classify types of drive failures into three types: basic, standard, and advanced.

These classifications help in analyzing the damage complexity and help them to compute the cost of data recovery.

The exact pricing depends on the company and the location in the world as well.

 

Can You Recover Data On Your Own?

 

Yes, you can recover data on your own if you are a highly skilled engineer or at least have some basic knowledge of the privacy factors involved.

Also, you must be aware that performing a data recovery process on your own can further damage your device, which can cause permanent data loss, and even the experts won’t be able to retrieve it.

Some fantastic tools are available in the market to help restore your data.

You may also need to study some courses related to data restoration to ensure smooth data recovery.

However, some factors will still cause some money even if you recover data on your own.

Let’s look at them briefly.

• Data recovery software charges.
• Extra data storage charges.
• Imaging equipment charges.
• Cleanroom equipment charges.

Recovering lost data on your own is a highly delicate process where the slightest of mistakes can cause a permanent data loss.

Before you proceed with the data recovery steps, make sure you are aware of all the risk factors involved.

 

Which Is The Cheapest Data Recovery Software?

 

There are different data recovery tools available in the market.

However, the one that is quite affordable and offers the best value is the Stellar Data recovery Tool.

It can recover data from storage devices like HDs, USBs, external drives, SD cards, etc.

This tool also supports NTFS, FAT, and ExFAT file systems.

Take a look at this tool’s pros and cons in detail.

Pros

• Fast processing time.
• Provides an option to allow specific folder scanning.
• Previews files before restoring.

Cons

• Allows only 1 GB of data recovery.

Despite being cheap, this software is secure and safe to recover lost data.

Also, it is very simple to use with a very straightforward UI.

 

Features Of Data Recovery Software

 

There are different software programs available to recover data at home, but they lack accuracy.

However, companies providing data recovery services always use top-rated and industry-standard software that contains precise and reliable features.

Let’s look at a few of them.

 

1. Reviewing Files

The top-quality software’s best feature is to review the files first, which helps preview the deleted files.

It allows you to choose the files for recovery after the reviewing process is completed to increase efficiency.

This feature helps recover the files you need and remove the ones you don’t want to recover.

 

2. Efficiency

The most significant feature of quality data recovery software is its efficiency in recovering lost data.

This software is parameterized to recover the data with the same efficiency and speed no matter how much you use it.

Another critical feature of this software is that they perform quick scans and full scans in less time.

 

3. Various Formats

The option of recovering all the files from your disk is a sign of good data recovery software.

You can recover files in any format such as text file, video or audio file, image and video file, or PDF file.

The companies that offer good data recovery services use software capable of scanning every file type.

 

4. Recovery From Any Storage Device

Good data recovery tools allow you to recover data from any storage device.

It can easily recover data from NAS, server disks, RAIDs, tapes, SD Cards, and USB drives.

 

5. Recover Data After Partitioning Error

You can lose all your data if partitioning goes wrong, and it is not easy to restore this data.

A rich feature of a good data recovery tool is that you can even recover data from disk, having partitioning errors.

This software uses algorithmic technicalities to resolve partitioning errors and recover the lost data efficiently.

 

6. Arranging Recovered Data

Good data recovery tools allow you to sort all the restored data using attributes such as file size, name, type, modification date, etc.

 

7. Compatibility

Whether you use an iOS or Windows platform, good data recovery tools are compatible with every device.

It runs on all operating systems.

 

Conclusion

Data recovery service tends to be expensive because of the methods companies use to restore lost data.

If a storage device crashes and is not fixed promptly, then there’s a chance of permanent data loss.

Due to this, you should always prefer a quality service over cheap ones to recover your data.