Questions people ask before they call us.

Mechanical hard drive recovery (clicking, not spinning, dropped, not detected) is $2,500 CAD. Flash media (USB, SD, microSD) and SSD or NVMe drives are $1,500 CAD. Diagnosis is free. RAID, NAS and server cases are $450 CAD per drive to assess, credited in full. Full breakdown on our pricing page.

Yes, $450 CAD per drive. A real engineer opens your device in the cleanroom, finds the exact failure and calls you with the result and the price. That costs you nothing, whether you go ahead or not. RAID, NAS and server cases are the exception: those are $450 CAD per drive to assess, credited in full to the recovery.

You approve a written quote first. Then payment is made in full and work begins. The moment we start, cleanroom time, donor parts and an engineer are committed to your drive. On qualifying cases, if we can't recover your data, the recovery fee is refunded in full. That's the No Data, No Charge guarantee.

Ask yourself one question: can the files be recreated? Photos of someone who's gone, a wedding, a child's first year, five years of your own creative work, no. A thesis, only by starting over. For irreplaceable data, the cost of recovery is almost always less than the cost of losing it forever.

Because nothing in it is automatic. A failed drive often needs a matched donor part, a head transplant under ISO Class 100 air, firmware repair and imaging on a machine costing over CA$30,000. Just to reach the point where we can see your files. You're paying for the lab, the equipment, and engineers who've done this ten thousand times since 2009.

Because a lower headline price and a lower final invoice are two different things. Published pricing in this industry is usually banded, with a low number for a healthy drive and a top band written as “from” or with a plus sign for mechanical work. A clicking drive is always the top band. Three things commonly sit outside it: the matched donor drive, which is the largest hard cost in a head transplant; add-on fees for previously-opened drives, water or fire assessment, decryption and rush service; and the guarantee itself, which in some cases explicitly does not apply when donor parts are needed. Our CA$2,500 includes the donor drive, the new drive your data comes back on and shipping, and our guarantee covers clicking and dropped drives. Bring the other quote when you call and an engineer will tell you honestly whether it covers your case.

Nothing is charged for the diagnosis, whether you proceed or not. Your drive is yours: collect it from our London lab at no cost, send your own courier, or we will quote UPS Express return shipping on the call, which you pay. Inbound shipping to us is free either way. The full terms are in Policy 15 of our service policies. Inbound shipping to us is free either way. We tell you the price before we send the shipping label, so the number is never a surprise once your drive is here.

Come see it. Our cleanroom is at 341 Talbot Street, London, Ontario, and it's been operating there since 2009. Every drive we accept is recovered in that room, by our engineers, on our equipment. We never ship your drive anywhere else.

Yes. Data Recovery Group Canada Inc. is 100% Canadian owned and operated. Our Tier 3 ISO Class 100 cleanroom lab is at 341 Talbot Street, London, Ontario N6A 2R5, and your data never leaves Canada. We have served Canadians since 2009, with free UPS Express shipping to our lab from all 13 provinces and territories.

We're honest about this: on a physically failed drive, some data can be unrecoverable. Where a head has scored the platter, or where a flash controller has corrupted blocks. That's exactly why we do a full assessment first. Before you approve anything, the engineer tells you what we expect to get back and what's at risk. No surprises after payment.

Ontario courts. Law enforcement. Air Canada. The Phoenix Suns. Banks, hospitals, universities, law firms, and thousands of individuals with one drive of family photos. See the client wall on our homepage.

No. Imaging and file verification are automated, engineers work at the sector and firmware level, not by opening your documents. For sensitive cases, an NDA is available on request before you ship. We're PIPEDA compliant, and every copy is deleted from our systems once you confirm receipt.

Usually, yes. Our success rate across all cases is 96%. The biggest risk isn't the failure. It's what happens between now and when the drive reaches us. Power it off. Don't open it. Don't run software. Call: 1-888-749-3786.

Some cases are back to the client in 48 hours. Complex mechanical or RAID cases can take two to three weeks. You'll get a specific timeline with your assessment results, before you approve anything. If you can't wait, emergency service is +$500 CAD on top of the recovery fee and keeps your case in production around the clock, nights and weekends included.

Yes. Emergency service is +$500 CAD, added to the recovery fee only. Your drive goes to the front of the queue and stays in production around the clock, nights and weekends included, until the recovery is finished.

It is worth it when downtime is costing you: a crashed array, a production server offline, a court or client deadline this week. If your case is not time critical, standard service costs nothing extra and uses the same lab, the same engineers and the same guarantee. See both speeds →

No. Once your recovered data is delivered and confirmed, the original device is physically destroyed within 48 hours. That's a privacy measure, no copy of your data exists anywhere but with you. If you need proof of failure for a warranty or insurance claim, ask the engineer; we can provide a written statement of the diagnosis.

Don't power it on again. Don't put it in the freezer. Don't open it. Don't run recovery software. Don't follow a YouTube fix. Every one of those can turn a recoverable drive into an unrecoverable one. Unplug it and call us.

Only if the drive is physically healthy and you simply deleted or formatted something. On a failing drive, software can write to the disk, overwriting the exact data you're trying to save, and every minute of spinning does more damage. If the drive clicks, doesn't spin, or isn't detected, software is the wrong tool.

No. They don't have a cleanroom, donor parts, or PC-3000 imaging equipment. Worse, a failed attempt by another shop makes the recovery harder and usually voids the guarantee, ours included. If the data matters, the first attempt should be a lab.

Yes. Free UPS Express, next-day, fully insured, to and from any province or territory. We email you the label. Pack the drive in its original enclosure or wrap it in anti-static material and bubble wrap inside a sturdy box; the engineer will walk you through it on the call.

Yes. Every drive comes to our London lab. UPS Express is next-day from anywhere in Canada, and it's free.

Our cleanroom lab is in London, Ontario, and we serve all of Canada with free prepaid UPS Express shipping to our lab. Whether you are in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary, Ottawa, Edmonton or anywhere across the 13 provinces and territories, your drive arrives at our lab next business day. An engineer responds within 15 to 20 minutes, 24/7. Call 1-888-749-3786.

Yes. Phones, memory cards, USB sticks, SSDs, NAS and SAN units, RAID arrays of any level, and forensic cases with chain-of-custody documentation. Phone and forensic cases have their own terms. The engineer will explain on the call.