Computer Doctors of Maine Inc., hard disk drive recovery process is affordable and reliable.  We have had 100% success rate in our recoveries that included partition failure and mechanical failure.   Although we provide our data recovery services nationwide, our primary focus is helping individuals businesses in the Greater Portland area.  We will work personally with you through the difficult time, assess the situation, and assist you in moving forward through the process.   Moreover, we charge a fraction of most data recovery services and, and we do it for a flat fee. 

Step 1.  Initial Assessment & Acquisition.
After you contact us for data recovery options we will first work to collect information and establish a potential pathway for the data recovery. We will attempt to make a determination on whether basic or advanced recovery will be required to complete the job.  We're not always right at this stage, but we do our best to lay out your options.  For our customers in the Greater Portland Area (including Gorham, Portland, South Portland, Westbrook, Scarborough, Saco, Biddeford, and Kennebunk) we will come and pick up ther affected hardware. 

Step 2.  Basic Recovery ($379.00 plus $25.00 service fee)*.
Once in our office the affected hard-drive will be connected to a series of recovery units designed to analyze the integrity of the device and the potential for recovery. If possible we will immediately image the drive and proceed with basic recovery.  This process generally takes 24-48 hours.  We will secure your data, burn it on DVDs (or put it on an external hard drive) and return it to you promptly.

Typical reasons for Basic Recovery include: lost parition information; drive is asking to be formatted; accidental deletion of files; drive was formatted.

Step 3.  Advanced Recovery -  ONLY IF Basic Recovery Fails (additional $325.00 clean-room fee).
Roughly 50% of all received drives fail basic recovery due to their state and have to be subjected to higher level recovery.  In this case the drive will be transferred to our affiliated engineering laboratory where the device can be subjected to more invasive recovery.   This process usually takes 3-7 business days.  We will do everything necessary to recover the data including take the drive apart in a CLASS-100 Clean Room. 

Typical reasons for Advanced Recovery include: "clicking" or other noises on the hard drive; drive will not spin; smell of smoke; you require forensic data recovery; someone smashed it.

We also offer RAID 0 and RAID 5 recovery but price estimates vary depending on the complexity of the project and the unique situation.  Our typical RAID Data Recoveries cost between $3000 and $6000, far below our competition.  However, those estimates do not apply in all of our cases, so please call us for details.  *Estimated costs on drives less than 225GB. Please contact us for details.

We have been doing data recovery from damaged hard disks / hard-drives since 2005 and are happy with the results.  Thus far 50% of our received drives were successfully processed (with data extraction) within 48 hours.  The remaining half could be divided into two categories: 1) those that took longer and 2) those that needed the clean room; both of which had to go to the laboratory for further extraction.   Our partnered lab is fantastic at turning out results, but they do take a while. Often the waiting queue is more than 5-7 business days due to high-volume.    Last, but not least, out of all the hard drives received only one (thus far and let's keep it that way) turned out unrecoverable. 

What makes a drive unrecoverable?  No matter what any company promises you - and some make outrageous claims - some hard-drives cannot be recovered.  If you hear a clicking & grinding noise in your damaged hard-drive, you may be dealing with one of those rare circumstances.  Permanent damage generally results from the internal pieces of the drive collapsing and scratching the platter.  Furtunately, at Computer Doctors of Maine, Inc., we do things differently.  First, we're upfront about chances.  Second, we don't charge a diagnostic fee - this one is the biggie.  With the large companies that promise unsupported results there is usually hefty fee for the privilidge of having them look at it - often that fee is larger than our entire cost of recovery!

It's October 2008, and we're starting our 4th year!  Our hard drive recovery journey has involved from individuals just trying to get their pictures and documents, to critical drives from the University of Southern Maine, to highly sensitive data for the Drug Enforcement Agency.  Our clients came from all areas of Maine [including Portland, Biddeford, Westbrook, South Portland, Saco, Gorham, Bar Harbor, and Perry] to other parts of the US [including Florida and New York].  Our goal has remained the same, to provide easy and affordable data recovery services to individuals and businesses in Maine.  Although we urge all of our customers (and visitors alike) to take all the precautions to BACKUP AND PROTECT their data, if disaster strikes we'll be there.