One of my clients lost a hard drive with important data that was not
backed up. It's a 20 G Seagate IDE drive that had a simple Windows 98
setup on it. The drive was only a few months old and will not
autodetect in BIOS. It may be a controller issue as opposed to a
physical problem with the platter.

I don't have time to research it right now. What are my best options
for recovering the data? I'd like the webpages (and some rough idea of
what it might cost) of some companies that could retreive Word and
Excel files from the "My Documents" folder on this drive. Price is
important to the client, naturally, so a top-of-the-line company would
probably be too expensive.

Thanks.

Hi Jbbarnes,

There many companies that offer data recovery services but only some
of them have a pricing list on their web page. Below are the companies
that will help you get an idea of the cost. It would be best if you
can contact them so that you can make detailed inquiries regarding the
details and cost.

The Data Recovery Services of Internet Desk, Inc.
According to them, the price ranges from zero and up but it can
actually be from $100 to $2,000 depending on the material and
equipment to be used.
Pricing information
http://www.dataicu.com/cost.html
Contact information
http://www.dataicu.com/contact.html

Data Recovery and Reconstruction
Base price is $750.00 (US)
Pricing and contact information
http://www.datarr.com/ci.html

CD Data Guys Data Recovery Center
For 20.0 - 24.9 Gb hard drive - $895.00
http://www.cddataguys.com/price.htm
Contact information
http://www.cddataguys.com/Contact_Page.htm

Independent Technology Service, Inc. (ITS)
Flat rate data recovery pricing
For 15.1Gb. to 20Gb. $1095.00 + drive
http://www.datarecoveryspecialist.com/datarecoveryspecialist/datarec/datarec_pricing.htm
Contact information
http://www.datarecoveryspecialist.com/datarecoveryspecialist/corporate/contact_us.htm

Reliable Data Recovery Services Inc.
For Microsoft DOS/95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP (IDE) $1,495.00 USD.
http://www.reliable-data-recovery.com/data-recovery-prices.html
Contact information
http://www.reliable-data-recovery.com/contact-us.html

Aver, Inc.
18GB - 30GB $500 $3900
Data recovery pricing and contact information
http://www.avercomputer.com/Recovery/pricing.html

ESS Data Recovery, Inc.
Evaluation: Free Rate: $100/hr. Average: $725*
Pricing and contact information
http://www.dataer.com/pricing.htm


Although you may not want a top-of-the-line company, I suggest you
make an inquiry because they might be offering a cheaper service as
compared to the companies listed above. Ontrack Data Recovery Services
also offers Remote Data Recovery™ for your client.

Ontrack Data Recovery Services
http://www.ontrack.com/services/
1-800-872-2599


In case you have time to search, you can use the search strings I used
below.

Search strategy:
"data recovery"
"data recovery" pricing


I hope this helps you. Should you have any comments/questions, please
feel free to post your clarification before rating this and I'll
attend to you as soon as possible. Thanks for asking.

Feilong

Fast answer with helpful links included.