Frequently Asked Questions

HDD recovery starts from €99, SSD recovery from €99, RAID/NAS from €259, mobile from €99, and flash drives from €69. Registering a case is free; optional insured DPD pickup costs €45. The final recovery price is determined after diagnostics.

Diagnostics includes examination of the media, identification of the damage, assessment of recoverability and a binding quote. Case registration, self-shipping and personal delivery require no payment to DataHelp; optional insured DPD pickup costs €45.

Register the case free of charge, then send the media to Prague with a tracked carrier of your choice or deliver it personally. Optional insured DPD pickup is available for €45.

You can visit our Prague laboratory without an appointment during opening hours: Mon-Thu 9:00-17:00, Fri 8:00-15:30. For case assessment, use the form or email info@datahelp.eu. Express processing outside business hours is available only by prior arrangement.

We accept cash or card payment upon collection, bank transfer in advance, or invoice with payment terms (for partners after receiving the order).

You pay nothing for unsuccessful recovery work. The optional €45 DPD pickup fee is separate and non-refundable because it covers insured collection and the initial laboratory assessment.

You can collect the media free of charge at our Prague laboratory, have it disposed of free of charge, or request return shipping for €25. Any optional DPD pickup fee already paid remains separate and non-refundable.

Our selected references can be found on the References page. All available customer reviews can be found on our Google business profile. We have helped thousands of clients get back to their data.

If the owner of the disk does not claim the device for more than 6 months from the date of receipt to the service, such device is considered intended for disposal without compensation.

If, after a successful recovery, you also want your non-functional original media back, we reassemble it for a fee of €60. During recovery we use our own spare parts and procedures (PCB, read heads, firmware modification, etc.), which then need to be removed and the original restored. (This is different from declining recovery, where return shipping is €25.)

We recover data from all media available on the market as well as unique systems and devices. We handle hard drives (HDD) of all brands, SSD drives including NVMe and M.2, RAID arrays and NAS servers, USB flash drives, SD/microSD memory cards, internal memory of Android and iOS mobile phones, backup tapes and more. We are independent of the operating system – Windows, Linux, Mac OS, Novell and others.

For example, broken micro SD cards and CDs, or disks that are professionally damaged so that they cannot be read. For flash memory, recovery is impossible with physical damage to the memory chip itself. For HDD, recovery is very difficult with massive scratching of platters.

Diagnostics typically takes 24-48 hours after receiving the media. Same-day diagnostics available for deliveries before 15:00. Express on-the-spot diagnostics possible by prior arrangement. You'll receive a detailed report with damage assessment and binding price quote.

File removal from a disk has several stages. Throwing a file in the trash does not permanently get rid of it. However, if you deleted the file with SHIFT+Delete or emptied the trash, the computer considers the place where the file was stored as space where it can write new data at any time. Therefore, a quick reaction is necessary – turn off the computer immediately and contact data recovery experts.

We behave professionally with every order. The only purpose of data manipulation is their recovery, and strict compliance with the law on protection of personal data (GDPR) is a matter of course. Data never leaves our secure laboratory in Prague. More about data security can be found on our website.

Yes, we provide data disposal service. If you have data that you need to remove from HDD or SSD so that it can never be recovered, contact us. We use professional methods including physical destruction of media.

Standard recovery takes 5-10 business days. Simple logical damage (deleted files, formatting): 2-5 days. Complex hardware repairs (head replacement, electronics): 2-3 weeks. RAID reconstruction: 1-3 weeks depending on array size. Express service (24-48 hours) available for urgent cases with priority surcharge.

We will copy the data to your memory media (hard drive, flash drive) or to your computer free of charge. You can also buy new memory media directly from us, or borrow some from us for a returnable deposit. Data can also be downloaded from our secure FTP server.

The customer is obliged to check the recovered data no later than 7 days from payment and delivery, unless otherwise agreed. Subsequent complaints are not taken into account, as the recovered data is then irreversibly disposed of without making any backup for data security reasons.

If the memory media purchased from us breaks down, you can deliver it to us and we will handle the complaint. We are not responsible for possible losses of stored data on these media after more than 7 days from data delivery to the customer. We recommend always backing up data to another media as well.

We do not repair, we purely focus on recovering your data. For hard drives (HDD) in case of software failure, reinstalling the operating system is enough and the disk is functional again. In case of hardware failure, the situation is more complicated – from a damaged disk we primarily recover data, repairing the disk itself depends on the extent and type of damage. Usually, repairing a faulty HDD is not even worthwhile.

If we need to break warranty seals, we inform the customer about it. Diagnostics is non-destructive and non-invasive, so the disk does not lose warranty. In case of actual data recovery, it depends case by case on whether the warranty remains preserved.

Our company provides purchase of unusable hard drives (HDD) for spare parts. These are not high amounts, but it is certainly a more sensible alternative to throwing the disk in the trash.

Yes, our company offers a partner program for customers who are interested in joining it. We offer above-standard services under very favorable conditions including discounts on data recovery from HDD, SSD, RAID and other media.

We do not perform it technically, but we are happy to advise you how to do it through our blog article. We specialize in data recovery from Apple devices – iPhone, iPad, MacBook.

You can help your mobile device with the proper charging process. We recommend keeping the battery between 20-80%, using original chargers, avoiding extreme temperatures. We wrote a detailed article about it on our blog.

Disk formatting is the process of preparing a hard drive or other storage media for use. It includes disk testing and writing a new file system. After formatting, it is often still possible to recover data if overwriting has not occurred.

Defragmentation of SSD disks is something you should avoid. Unlike HDD, where defragmentation helps, with SSD it unnecessarily reduces disk lifespan. Instead of defragmentation, the TRIM function is used with SSD.

They exist, but it's good to find out something about them first so that such a program doesn't do more harm than good. Whenever a problem occurs with a memory media, we recommend contacting professionals – after each unprofessional intervention, the chances of data recovery decrease.

Unfortunately, there is no way. Once a micro SD card is broken into multiple parts, nothing can be done about it. Data recovery from a physically damaged memory card is not possible.

Repair of a USB flash drive is only possible in case of USB connector damage or destruction of common electronic components. We do not perform flash drive repairs, but data can be recovered from such flash drives. It always depends on the extent of damage. In case of mechanical damage to the memory chip, recovery is impossible.

First, do not turn the device back on. Fill out our online form or email info@datahelp.eu so we can assess the problem from the details you provide. Further use of a damaged HDD or SSD can cause irreversible data loss.

On Windows you can use for example the Macrium Reflect program, which creates an image from a hard drive or individual partitions. You can then copy this somewhere and don't have to worry about losing installed applications. If you need the backup, everything will be correctly loaded back to your disk from this image.

The basis for preventing unpleasant data losses is to develop a habit of regular backups. All data that is important to you should always be stored in at least two places simultaneously. Don't forget to update backups of files that change frequently – documents, emails or invoices.

Best using the 3-2-1 backup rule: have 3 copies of data, on 2 different types of media (e.g. HDD and cloud), with 1 copy outside home/office. Regularity is key – set up automatic backups.

There are several types of causes of data damage: mechanical HDD damage (fall, impact), electronics failure (overvoltage, short circuit), firmware failure, software errors (file system damage), human error (accidental deletion, formatting), malware and ransomware, natural disasters (floods, fire). We have encountered many types of damage and can solve them.

There is no universal advice – everything can break, whether it's a mechanical HDD, SSD, flash drive or cloud. It's best to have multiple independent backups. For home use, NAS network storage for multiple disks is also available.

Please don't believe everything you find on the internet. It doesn't work! Low temperatures cause moisture condensation on disk platters, which can cause further damage. We thoroughly debunked this myth in an article on our blog.

If you have properly set up automatic backups within the Apple system (iCloud or iTunes), it shouldn't be anything difficult. You can find a detailed procedure in our thematic article about data recovery from Apple devices.

It depends on how much water and where exactly it gets. Generally, the rule of 3 NOs applies: Don't turn on, Don't dry (with a hairdryer!), Don't disassemble. Turn off the wet device immediately and contact professionals. You can find more advice in our article.

For photographers, we have prepared specific proven tips for backing up. We recommend a combination of local backup (external HDD or NAS) and cloud service. Store Raw files and important photos in multiple locations.

On Android phones you can synchronize contacts with a Google account, on iPhone with iCloud. We wrote separate articles for both systems including procedures for recovering lost contacts.

It's best to stick to the 3-2-1 backup rule. From programs we recommend: Macrium Reflect, Acronis True Image, EaseUS Todo Backup for Windows, Time Machine for Mac, rsync for Linux. Supplement with cloud services like Google Drive, OneDrive or Dropbox.