What to charge for Data Recovery?

sdotbrucato

[H]ard|Gawd
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I know this isnt really the correct sub-forum, and if it really bothers the Mods, I apologize.

I know a lot of the consultants and such hang around these forums, so I was wondering what do you guys charge for data recovery?


I have a client who needs some pictures recovered off his PC that his (soon to be ex) wife deleted. They were recently deleted and the PC hasnt been used since, so it shouldnt take too much time to recover these files.
My usual rate for work is $50/hr. (used to be more, but I'll take what I can get) but I'm not sure how to bill this out, since it's such a specialized service. Do I stay with my usual rate or what?
 
I would go with your normal rate presuming you will be using some of the commercial data recovery tools. its not terribly complicated for basic file undelete recovery. you will likely run an app, wait, wait some more, get results that you need to filter down to just the actual pics, copy all the pics onto a removable drive (always do this at the first chance in case something goes bad), then recover the files onto the pc. ask the customer if they want backups burned to dvds and charge them time for that too.

if you are trying to recover files that were deleted long ago, older versions of current files, recover files that the customer does not know the name/location of, or recover data from a non fully funtioning drive or pc, or do a full system recovery, then you charge more.
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Just charge fairly for your time. Are you driving there and doing it onsite? Or are you picking up the PC, taking it home..working on it, copying to media, bring it all back to him?

The average home computer user (such as this client of yours) is very likely to stumble across some computer article that covers the subject of the many free undelete utilities out there and how wonderfully easy they are to use. If you slam him with an inflated invoice of several hundred dollars for 15 minutes of your time..and down the road he comes across some article on the local newspapers computer column or PCWorld about how easy file undelete programs are to use...you think you'll be getting a call back from him for more work? Or that he'll recommend you to others?

Don't give your work away, but be fair.
 
what did you do run GetDataBack and wait a few hours? Chrage your normal time but if it took you only 1 physical hour of picking up unit, plugging drive in, letting it do its magic, and burning to CD, maybe bill for 3-4 hours.

or base it off bestbuy.

we charge $100/hour and dont mark it up.
 
Just an update. I ended up actually "billing" for 8 hours, but the invoice reads 12. He gave me a laptop at first, and said that the wife had the images on the laptop. After running r-studio, and coming up with nothing that even resembled said pictures. I put it down as 6 hours wasted.

He then tells me, that the pics are on the desktop. I pickup the desktop run r-studio, and eventually I find them.

The pictures where in an unknown location, no file names known, no dates known (except a round about of when they were deleted) it wasnt fun. A lot of sifting through pictures on both machines. Total nightmare.

I found about 40 of ~100, but all in all, I learned a lesson. Not something I want to do, unless its in a commercial environment, or the client knows where the pictures were! lol
 
R-Studio has given me better results for my personal endeavors with data recovery.

The customer was happy with what I could get, so I didnt have a need to use another piece of software. Plus I would have had to either A) Eat the cost of software B)Bill client for software.
 
well lesson learned, just remember Gillware charges under 500 for a single hard drive recovery, better solution for you and your client.

i use getdataback and great results recovering what i can if the drive is spinning, if not it goes to gillware, which costs about 400, and i charge 500-600 on it.
 
ive heard of some data recovery companies charging 1500 dollar range. i cant see anyone paying that for personal home pictures unless they are nudies or dude in a baby outfit worried the drive could fall into the wrong hands.
 
ive heard of some data recovery companies charging 1500 dollar range. i cant see anyone paying that for personal home pictures unless they are nudies or dude in a baby outfit worried the drive could fall into the wrong hands.

I think the better alternative to that would be a trip to the shooting range, not shipping it off for data recovery :p
 
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