Lapin Systems | Mac Support
Data Recovery Facts
General Information
There is no substitute for a backup of your data.
Data recovery is a very sensitive and complex process. The term "recovery" is used when data cannot simply be copied from a storage device, whether it is a hard drive, flash drive, camera memory card, floppy disc, or any other type of physical media. If the media is damaged, either physically (the hard drive platters are damaged, or the read/write head is broken), or logically (the "directory," or file-map is damaged or missing) then a simple data transfer will not work. This term also applies to cases where certain files have been deleted, and must be "undeleted" (restored) from the disk in question. This is when data recovery becomes necessary, which is a unique process separate from the repair of your computer.
Lapin Data Recovery Procedure
The best way to recover from a hard drive failure is to have a backup of your data available at all times. If you do not have a backup, Lapin will try its hardest to recover the data from your faulty storage medium. We take the data recovery process and the integrity of your data very seriously and take great care in our attempts to rescue data. Sometimes however, drives are damaged to the point where our software resources simply cannot communicate with the device. In some cases we know this immediately, other times we must connect the drive to one of our diagnostic machines to find this out. The nature of drive failure sometimes necessitates hours, days, even weeks to find out whether we are able to recover data or not. At the end, there IS a chance that no data will be recovered, or if files are recovered, they may be unusable because of the damage to the directory structure (file map), or logical portion of the drive. Our chances of getting usable data from your failing media run the gamut from 0%-100%. There are times when we get every single piece of data, in usable form, from a bad drive. There are times when we get some. There are times when we get none.
Because of the amount of time and attention required to complete this process, Lapin charges an "attempt" fee for data recovery service. This means that in cases where we do not recover any, or any usable/requested data, there will still be a service charge, in addition to your normal computer repair fee. This fee is $129. In the case of a successful data recovery, including a full recovery, a partial recovery including customer-requested data, or intact data from an OS X user account folder, Lapin charges $499. Once again, these rates are dedicated data-recovery rates. There will be additional hourly and part charges for the repair of and/or hard drive replacement in your machine.
Please take a moment to read and initial the previous worksheet so that we can do our best to meet your expectations when trying to recover your data. We will put forth our best effort to get the data that is most important to you. As is often the case, the recovery procedure can take several days, and Lapin will keep you updated on the progress as information becomes available.
Again, there is no substitute for a backup of your data.
Please, REMEMBER TO BACK UP YOUR DATA!