1st Data Recovery.Com

1st Data Recovery can best be described as the “Worst Data Recovery Service”. They claim 4 to 7 days turnaround for failed drive.
So I dropped off the failed drive and USB external drive (for transferring recovered data) at one of their drop off location. I was instructed to give the items to the receptionist of another company. 1st Data Recovery does not have a physical presence there. First bad sign.

No case number or anything. I emailed and called twice before I get an email from 1st Data 2 days later with case number.
7 days later I emailed re status. I called next day because no answer. That’s the unresponsive nature of this company throughout. Have to email several times and or call to get any answer.
27 days later they email me that data is unrecoverable. Ridiculous. The drive head crashed. Data was not destroyed or scrambled. It’s a mechanical failure. They just didn’t want to go the extra expense or work.

Plus they want to charge me $70.00 to ship back the damaged drive and my USB drive. They make me wait almost a month with no results and then still want to charge me to return my items. When I called to complain to the owner, he threatens to charge me for any more phone calls because it’s his “time”.

If you have valuable data definitely DO NOT SEND IT TO 1ST DATA RECOVERY.

I shipped my hard drive to the company and waited for a response. After more than 7 days I did not hear anything. They guarantee turnaround of 4-7 days for standardized service. I had received a confirmation they received my package the very next day from the post office. I emailed the company and they emailed me back with 3 options to pay for. I was initially quoted $500 for the recovery service. All three options were close to $700. I was under the impression the $500 service included burning the data to a DVD. The company should be more upfront with their hidden costs. I was told I had to pay upfront in order for them to process my request. I was nervous about doing so as they prefer bank transfers over credit cards (it's an extra 3% to pay that way). I sent a bank transfer and waited for a response. I got no response for 2 days and 3 emails. Finally after the third email they said my package was in the mail and they gave me a Canada Post confirmation #. I purchased the option to get the external drive which was cheaper than the DVD. I am satisfied with that as it acts as a good back up system. I didn't get all the data from my drive. They ask what you want to recover and the company literally verbatium recovers what you tell them to. I am happy that I was able to get my data back and for that I give the company credit for being able to successful recover it. Overall, the product was what I wanted but paid more than I expected. The company should make their process clearer on their website and be upfront as to how much it really is going to cost.

1st DataRecovery helped me recover my family photos from a defective hard drive. I had just bought a new laptop and was moving photos onto it from my old computer when the laptop crashed. I was unable to access my data on the laptop hard drive. I brought the hard drive to 1st DataRecovery and within a week they all my data and photos recovered. I learned a valuable lesson.