I had my SSD crash. Which was a pretty low feeling to have. There were really only a few things on there that were important. Otherwise, everything was either replaceable, expendable or unimportant. That being said, I had about 4 years of a game I played cataloged in a combination of photos and videos. Silly me had never backed up my drive before. (a lesson learned)
I decided that I wanted to see if the files were retrievable. I looked around the internet quite a bit. I queried into a number of different data recovery services. Often times, I needed to mail my drive across state lines to a company, that after reviewing their reviews, seemed, mediocre at best. Going into this process, I knew it wouldn''t be the cheapest endeavor. You Will Spend Some Money to get your data back. That being said, it was well worth it to me. After a few days of research, I stumbled upon SDR. They had good reviews, on both their website (which one should be wary of, due to the possibility of them only posting good/fake reviews) and the BBB website. What I liked a lot about SDR was that they have offices in a lot of the major cities in a decent number of states. Meaning, I could physically drive my broken SSD to their office in Cincy and hand deliver it, removing the possibility of if getting lost on that part of the journey. I also liked the proximity, because I could drive there and pick it up if things didn''t turn out well in any regard. Starting my adventure though, I sent a request in to their website and started the process. During this whole endeavor, I engaged with Elliot Fisher. (of whom, was a great person to work with)
I put the query in and heard back within the next day or so via email. Elliot reached out regarding my question.
Next, I want to inform everyone that, EVERY company I engaged with in regards to this type of recovery, were very "shy" about listing or giving you a price on their website or in any meaningful capacity prior to engaging with their people and being a bit far down the "I''d like to have you guys recover my data" road. So, this isn''t a slight against SDR, moreover, just be aware, you won''t find a "real" price until you''ve engaged with someone. That being said, dealing with Elliot was very cordial, when we talked about pricing and the different options they had, there was no pressure (in my opinion) to continue if I didn''t want to. He was very reasonable and willing to work with me on whatever came across my mind. I''m not sure exactly what I can say about pricing, but you will a good sum of money. On that note though, there is room for negotiation. I don''t make a lot of money myself, so when the cheapest option popped up on the screen for me, I definitely just stared at it for a minute, it was still a very hefty price-tag. This being said, Elliot worked with me to achieve a price that would work for me and my budget. (thank you, Elliot!)
I chose the Economy package, since I was in no hurry and had less than 100Gbs of data to recover. This was the cheapest option available. Unless you need data recovered quickly, I''d recommend this option as the prices are.. Fair, but - still costly. All this money-talk being said, this was well worth it!
The wait time for this option was 3 -5 weeks. My data was recovered in3 weeks, so that was cool.
After the three weeks passed, I received an email from Elliot saying the data was recovered and he attached a document which listed the files that could be recovered and the ones that couldn''t.
Here comes the AWESOME part. 99.97% of my data was recovered. They list out for you what was recovered and what wasn''t in a very nice-and-neat text document. There were literally just 4 items that weren''t recovered. (of which, none of those were important)
Seeing as they recovered all of the things I needed, in a timely fashion (given the Economy option that I chose) and was achieved at a price within my budget. I am very happy with my experience. I am writing this review before the flash drive has reached my house, but I am certain that when I check the contents of it, everything will be in working order. Overall, I highly recommend SDR and my experience with Elliot Fisher was awesome. I understand that they need to make money, but Elliot worked with me to achieve a price that worked for both of us. If you are having doubts about this company getting your data back, I would leave those aside. They are professional, efficient, and can work with you on pricing.