Submit a Drive for Data Recovery Service

Overview

In order for us to know what data recovery service your hard drive requires, you will need to submit the drive for Data Savers, LLC’s free diagnostics. Learn more about our pricing here.

  • Download and print our Work Order (PDF).
  • Fill out the work order completely, making sure to include an email address.
  • Pack the hard drive and ship via common carrier, such as FedEx or UPS.
  • Receive diagnosis within 1-business day, and interact with our technicians via our CustomTrak data recovery portal.

Download and fill out the Work Order form.

To begin the process, we will need to know information about you and your storage device:

Click to download the Data Savers, LLC Work Order (PDF)

Please print and fill out the work order completely. All of the requested information is needed to ensure that we can contact you about your recovery. Any additional information you can provide regarding when and how the drive failed can help tremendously. If you have any questions, please call us (1-866-MY-DATA-4) and we are happy to help. We will use the information provided in the work order form to create and monitor your recovery in our CustomTrak™ communication system.

CustomTrak™ allows you to log on at any time to check the status of your recovery as technicians move it through our data recovery process. When a technician updates your ticket with comments and questions, you will instantly receive an email notification that you can reply to. We will primarily use email to communicate with you once the your drive arrives for recovery. If you do not have email access, please make sure that you notate this clearly on the work order.

Our standard procedure at Data Savers, LLC is to treat your data with the utmost confidence. Once your failed hard drive arrives, it does not leave our lab until the recovery services are complete and unauthorized individuals are not allowed in our office, lab, or clean room. Nonetheless, if you have concerns about your data confidentiality, you may download and execute a copy of our Non-Disclosure Agreement (PDF). We will return a co-executed copy to you upon receipt of your failed hard drive.

Consider how you would like us to return the recovered data.

Let’s be optimistic about the prospects of your recovery: in the good chance that we are able to rescue your data, how should we return it to you?

We offer a few options depending on the manufacturer and condition of your drive:

  • My drive is under warranty through Western Digital. We will have the drive replaced through Western Digital free of charge and copy your recovered data to the replacement. Please verify your drive’s warranty status at http://support.wdc.com/warranty.
  • My drive comes from a Mac that is covered under AppleCare. We will have the drive replaced through AppleCare free of charge and migrate your data to the replacement. If you are sending the drive by itself, please be sure to supply your Mac’s serial number. You can check your service coverage at http://www.apple.com/support.
  • I have another drive to copy my data to. We can copy the recovered data to another drive you own. Please note that it must be at least the same capacity as the defective drive, and it must not already have any data on it. Our recovery process requires that the target drive is blank, and any existing data will be overwritten.
  • I want to purchase a new drive. You can buy one from us, from an online retailer, or a local computer store. We don’t recommend any particular brand, capacity, or price point, and our inventory and pricing varies depending on what is readily available. If you’re buying one from a retailer, we recommend purchasing one with a multiple-year warranty.

Package the hard drive securely and ship with a common carrier.

When preparing a shipment, it is of utmost importance that your drive is packaged carefully with adequate padding on all sides. Insufficient packaging may lead to further damage to your fragile hard drive, which will make the data recovery process more difficult and can render your drive unrecoverable. Moreover, most carriers will invalidate insurance claims if they deem the packing job substandard. As a rule of thumb, pack your hard drive as if it were made of fragile glass.

A padded envelope does not provide ample protection to ship a hard drive.
Use a corrugated cardboard box and bubble wrap, foam, or packing peanuts to make sure your drive is protected from impact on all sides.

Here’s a few things to consider when preparing your shipment:

  • If you are sending a bare hard drive, enclose the failed hard drive in an antistatic bag or plastic clamshell, if available.
  • If you are shipping an external hard drive, we do not need your USB, eSATA, or FireWire cables.
  • If you are sending another drive to copy the recovered data to, please clearly mark which hard drive is defective on the paperwork as well as on the hard drive itself. If they are not marked, we cannot start the recovery process right away.
  • If you are shipping a notebook computer, we recommend that you purchase a special shipping box, usually available from FedEx, UPS, or specialty pack-and-ship stores. These boxes typically cost about $10. We understand that if your laptop is damaged in transit, filing a successful claim is easier if you use packing that is pre-approved by the carrier.
  • Mark the package fragile. Insure your package for full value. If the delivery is not local, send the package via air to minimize handling during shipment.
We can not stress this enough – it is essential that you properly package your drive for shipment! They are extremely sensitive devices, and we have seen more than a handful of drives that were damaged during shipping because of insufficient packaging.

We’ll get the drive diagnosed within 24 hours!

Once we receive your package, we provide confirmation of receipt by opening a ticket in CustomTrak, which emails you two important getting started emails: the first asks you to pick a password to access CustomTrak, the second is your work order and non-disclosure agreement digitized.

Our technicians will diagnose your failed hard drive, and report their findings to you by posting to your CustomTrak ticket. Within 24 business hours, you should have a better understanding of a relative time to completion, the technical challenges we will face, and the cost of the data recovery service.

Billing occurs after job completion, and prior to return shipment. We accept payment by major credit card, including Visa, MasterCard, and American Express, as well as PayPal, cashier check or money order. We do not accept personal checks.

If you have questions at any point, please call us at 1-866-MY-DATA-4.

Thank you for choosing Data Savers, LLC. We look forward to helping you!