datatrack-labs.co.uk Reviews 184

Datatrack Labs review.
OK, for those of you who don’t want to read the entire review, here’s the basics:
Datatrack Labs managed to recover ALL my data (1.99TB from an unresponsive 3TB drive which had suffered a blown PCB and dead heads caused by a failed PSU)
Total time from despatch of dead drive to return of recovered data: 12 days
Total cost: £401.88
The world of data recovery is a complete minefield – it’s hard to know just who is legitimate and who is not, and as for pricing… well, pluck a figure out of the air between £99 and £1500 and that’s what you could pay. There’s very little transparency or indeed good, solid reviews from people who actually know about data recovery i.e. reviews who can be objective. Therefore, knowing which data recovery company is good, reliable, trustworthy, and charges reasonably is a bit like playing the lottery, or being at the end of Dirty Harry’s Magnum.
All the hallmarks of a completely unregulated industry.
How did I get here? Well, after the PSU in my PC decided to die, I was left with both backup drives I had attached at the time, fried. One had the clicking heads of death, the other was completely unresponsive, and of course it was this one which had the most up to date data on it. I figured maybe the PCB had blown and potentially the heads might need replacing.
So, data recovery it had to be.
The internet can be overwhelming at times, but I eventually narrowed down my selection to four or five companies. I started the ring around as I prefer good old fashioned human interaction. Several companies straight away bit the dust as I was greeted by a call centre. Data is a very personal thing so feeling like I was about to make a PPI or insurance claim was not what I had in mind. I still managed to get an idea of cost based on symptoms. What I was told was £200 - £275.
Remember that figure.
Step forward Datatrack Labs.
I spoke with Michael who turned out to be the Managing Director. He spent a good amount of time going over the process and costs involved and reassuring me about their place in the pantheon of data recovery and the cowboys who operate in the industry. From what I told him he said it is most likely to be the PCB which would cost £99 + VAT. If the heads had been damaged then that would be another £195 + VAT. So, in a worst-case scenario I was probably looking at around £360 and there would be about a five day turn around on the data recovery. Michael did say that there was a £500 price cap. So, despite this figure being higher than the other labs, the personal nature of the interaction and just the “vibe” I got from Michael made me go with him.
Drives packaged up and sent, I waited for some news….
Firstly, I received a generic email with a list of possible fixed prices – PCB £99 - £145, read/write head transplant £195. In fact, I receive the email twice.
Not fifteen minutes later I received a third email. This one is a quote for £99 ex VAT based on the anticipated problem being an electronics / PCB failure.
The following day I receive an email saying my drive had been received.
A day later an email arrived saying the evaluation was complete and this was the cost:
Economy Service (14 – 21 days)

PCB/Electronics Repair/Replacement - £145
Read/Write Head Transplant - £195
Required Parts (New read/write heads) - £100
-15% Discount for online quote
TOTAL Cost excluding VAT - £378.25

Rapid Service - (7 - 10 days)
PCB/Electronics Repair/Replacement - £145
Read/Write Head Transplant - £195
Required Parts (New read/write heads) - £100
Rapid Service Fee - £500
TOTAL Cost excluding VAT - £945

Emergency Service ( 24 - 72 hours )
PCB/Electronics Repair/Replacement - £145
Read/Write Head Transplant - £195
Required Parts (New read/write heads) - £100
Emergency Service Fee - £1000
TOTAL Cost excluding VAT - £1445

Yes folks, you did read that last figure correctly!
So, two things stuck out – the PCB repair was £145, not the £99 of the initial quote. And secondly, required parts £100.
My £360 worst case scenario was now £453.90!
And remember that £500 price cap? Hmmmm….
I’ve now got alarm bells ringing.
Time for a phone call … and then some more phone calls.
I got a call back from Michael the following day. I explained that there seemed to be some mistakes in the pricing – I had been quoted £99 for the PCB failure, not £145. Michael instantly said that that was an oversight and that the quote would be reduced accordingly, and it was. As for the new read / write heads, he said normally they’d have the spare parts to substitute in and there would have been no charge, but in this instance, they had no direct replacement for my drive heads so had to order them in. I did take him to task over not having been clear in our initial conversation that this cost was a possibility to which his reply was that it is clearly outlined in the T&C’s on their website (which it is but I had not read fully at that time). Similarly, I said he had promised a price cap of £500, yet there was a £945 and a £1445 option in the quote. The economy quote was for a turnaround of 14-21 days, not the five days he’d suggested in our initial conversation. He said that these additional services were clearly outlined in the T&C’s (they are) and that the three levels of service are there for prioritisation of jobs. Basically, you’ll get your data generally in four or five days, but if a big rush job paying shed loads of cash comes through the door, you’re getting bumped down the line.
I went and had a read of the terms and conditions. They’re comprehensive. Yes, all these items I’ve highlighted are in there, as are a whole load of others….
READ THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF WHICHEVER DATA RECOVERY SERVICE YOU USE BEFORE USING THEM YOU THEN WON’T BE SURPRISED WHEN THE CHARGES APPEAR IN YOUR QUOTE.
For example, if you’re sending them a drive which has previously been opened for some reason (i.e. the security seals are broken), then that is a £195 charge before any other work is done. Your data is encrypted and you didn’t tell them - £120. You don’t want to accept the quote for work and want your drive sent back and you’ve used the free collection service - £40. And don’t not pay your bill in time….
I’m not having a go at Datatrack Labs per se. All these charges are there in black and white on their website. I’m sure that similar charges exist at other data recovery services as well – I actually checked a few, and none were as detailed in their T&C’s as Datatrack’s. Are these companies not as transparent with some of their charges or are Datatrack Labs charges more comprehensive in scope? Unfortunately, I don’t have an answer to that. I do know that at least one lab does not have a priority scale for charging – each job is valued the same and sits in the queue accordingly. This lab similarly told me that if the heads needed replacing then there was no way I’d be charged less than £700 for that sort of job. Datatrack Labs did that job successfully for £400. Go figure.
Anyway, back to the job…
I sent Michael an email saying I was happy to proceed at the revised price.
The following day, I received an email saying recovery was complete and a link was provided to a screen grab which showed the top of the file structure tree and total amount of data (1.99TB) which looked like the full amount. There was also a request for payment – a WorldPay link was provided. I tried paying immediately, but my cards (I tried two) would not go through. Phone call to the bank ensued who could not see any attempted transactions. Phone call to Michael who called back. Issue with WorldPay. Gave card details over the phone and Michael processed the transaction manually which went through first time. Received a payment confirmation email and an email saying the data would be sent out for delivery on the Tuesday (this was Friday).
Tuesday came and went, as did Wednesday’s delivery time. So, email to Michael on Wednesday afternoon. The response a day later was it’ll be sent either today or tomorrow. On Friday I received an email saying the data had been sent and a tracking number was provided.
Data on the drive I supplied (Michael will supply one at cost) was delivered on Saturday.
ALL DATA HAD BEEN RECOVERED.
Total elapsed time – 12 days
Total cost: £401.88
To those reading the review – I may seem overly critical of certain aspects of Datatrack Labs. I think this is due to me being overly influenced by the (many) horror stories about certain unscrupulous service providers. Datatrack Labs are not one of those – I do however believe a little more transparency when discussing possible pricing and service options wouldn’t go amiss, that way when the options in the quote arrive the information wouldn’t seemingly be quite as conflicting. The caveat here of course is that the information is all in the T&Cs which you should read first (though who does?)!

Summary – Datatrack Labs provide a fixed fee data recovery service with a cap of £500. Communication via emails is clear as is the website. Pricing is clear, though it is imperative you read the terms and conditions BEFORE committing to the service (as it would be for any service you use). Michael is easy to speak to, informative, and will allay your fears for what can be a bit of a minefield of choice.
In terms of Dirty Harry’s Magnum – I was a lucky punk in using Datatrack Labs.
Wholeheartedly recommended.

I was fortunate in finding Datatack Labs - their web site ws very clear & having spoken with Moichael Owen I was confident in engaging them with mytask without fear of the fina cost
The recovered date included many phots requriied for a photobook projectand without your help their would have been large gaps
Thanks for taking on my request and rescuing me from a silly mistake of deletintg all files from the WD exernal drive
Your sympathetic approach to my needs was much appreciated
A big thanks
peter dennis
UK

I had a hard drive from a supposedly reputable brand 'that could not fail'.

It was working fine and with over ten years of family photos and movies....1000s and 1000s of files. One day it broke, and my laptop that had all the copies had broken months before.

I sent it off to the team & Michael came back almost immediately with what they had been able to find and fix (which was all of it!). Before it is fixed Michael sent across a crystal clear list of the folders and the files that have been recovered. This was good as expectations are perfectly set.

Once fixed the drive was back to me within days. Looking back through all my photos I thought were gone has made my week. Absolutely excellent service and great communications from datalabs throughout.

Luke
(Bristol)

Easy and quick service! Was kept informed during the whole process and they retrieved my data quickly even over the Christmas break.

Absolutely Shocking!, I sent a drive down to be repaired in a bubble wrap package after a lengthy discussion with "an engineer", basically the wrong power supply was plugged into it which fried the board. When it arrived at this 'business' the price all of a sudden went through the roof. I declined and asked for my drive to be sent back. I experienced unreasonable and rude conduct. I sent the cash for the return then the drive then took a ridiculous amount of time to come back almost 10 weeks if I remember correctly. When it arrived back the drive had been incorrectly pried open with obvious screwdriver indentations. The heads on the inside we're also crushed which I was advised could not have happened in transport. Because I asked for the drive back it would have been embarrassing for them if the things they were trying to charge me for repairing turned out to be fine. I sent my drive to another company who did the work at a little over 50% of the quote I was provided by these guys. I would body swerve this company at all costs.

The team at DTL did an outstanding job recovering 100% of my data from an old portable HDD that held 10 years worth of data

It took a long time as the HDD was not responding even after damaged parts were replaced but they persevered and managed 100% recovery in the end

I was over the moon with the results and cannot recommend them highly enough!

5 stars!

DTL certainly delivered for me, in the end! I was incredibly anxious at the prospect of having lost an awful lot of priceless data! And couldn't hear back from them quick enough! But eventually they came through and managed to rescue pretty much all of my data!! And I cant thank them enough, "money well spent!" THESE ARE THE GUYS TO USE!!!

My cat knocked my memory bank off the kitchen table while I was editing wedding photos. As you can imagine it didn't work again after that.

I called a few places and didn't feel very confident that they could do the very delicate job. Once I. Spoke to the office at Data Track Labs I was sure they were the ons for the job.

I hesitantly send off years of my work in a small plastic device panicking if in had made the right decision.

DATA TRACK from the off were very good in communicating with me, and I could see on their site where my repair was.

When they messaged me to say they have the data and it was recoverable I was elated...
Then I saw the price. OMG data recovery I'd an expensive business.
Once I overcame my shock I thought about it and wondered how many people i could really trust to recover such priceless information.. not many....

I received my device about 3 weeks later as I was a bit slow with the payment.
I opened it up on my computer and there it all was.

All my memories, years of work and the wedding I was editing at the time.
Immediately felt it was worth the money..

Would highly recommend Data Track Labs.

The initial communication was very good and very honest (only opinions on other competition). My hard drive was damaged and foolishly Id backed up everything less 2 photo albums. These 2 albums contained my whole army career. My fault I know. So I had no option but recover my data.

I was under no illusion that this wasn't a cheap process (by any company, not just DTL) I'd put forward quotes by other companies and concerns about DTL from a rival. I got quite an informal response. However the initial price guide was well under anybody else.

This was something I was warned about by competitors but DTL seemed quite helpful. So 195+VAT. £234. I thought was reasonable so decided to go ahead.

Next thing my bill is up to 497.25. I asked if we could move on the price slightly as it was slightly more then I thought. We went back and forward 3 or 4 times. I went back through the invoice. I was told my job was capped at 500 ex VAT. This was meant to include 15% online discount, I was saving £2.75. I'm no mathmetician but that didn't quite seem 15%. In my view when questioned DTL became quite bold saying that was the price regardless and they wernt budging. So be wearing of the 15% discount. I'm not sure it exists.

"I'm afraid the price is the price, we can't knock anything more off, it's already discounted and we've offered you a huge 50% off if you decide to pay upfront.

You don't have to proceed if you're not happy with the quote but I know it's a fair price for what is required."

I continued to look round in case we had no succes and found a company offering military discount. I asked DTL if they could offer me the same, their response was very arrogant saying

"Please forward the quote to me, I'm surprised anyone can provide such a quote without actually seeing the disk. We generally do not price match with other companies as most of the companies out there do not have the same level of capability and experience as us. Audi don't price match with Dacia.

If you look at our quote we have given you the option of paying 50% less than our normal quote if you are willing to pay the fee upfront, £292.50 plus VAT which is significantly lower than the other estimate/quote you have received. I don't think the other company would offer a free assessment or no data no fee service has the disk has been opened. I know we wouldn't."

Then I replied and received

"We wouldn't price match with that company, to be honest I've never heard of them and have been in this industry for 13 years."

Anyway my hard drive had been opened, I was now at DTLs mercy and had to trust them as no other company will really take the risk of an opened hard drive. So I went ahead. No Fix No Fee the advert. Then came the the small print of 50% off if you void that. So I was told the bill was capped at 500 remember.

"If the disk has every fault under the sun I can tell you we have capped the cost at £500 ex VAT, this is £300 - £800 less than our competitors."

Next thing you know my bills 585 plus VAT. So the 50% isn't actually 250 it's 292.50 + VAT. I queried this then.

"It's 50% off the price of £585 plus VAT as that's the actual price prior to any discounts, not including the 15% discount or that would be 65% off.

Sorry if that wasn't clear in the email but it's something we have only introduced this week."

Disappointing that they can 'just remember'

So they went ahead as I was backed down an alley. And got news they had mixed news. They'd recovered some data but not it all. And strangely not the album I needed and wanted. But they were 'willing' to try again. For another 195+VAT. So I've read a previous review of someone getting 2 jobs for the price of 1. I'm sorry I don't believe you.

No fix no fee again, or if I wasn't happy there was no fee. They carried out the recovery again and got 2 albums but no other folders. Invoice to pay 195 +. I was upfront and said I was willing to pay 80% as it wasn't a full recovery but acknowledged their small success. Once again they refused.

"We believe we can get more data if we repeat the procedure, we are willing to repeat the procedure for an additional £195 plus VAT as it requires another head change as the new heads we installed are now failing to read (due to the media surface damage)

If we cannot recover any more data or you are not happy with the extra data we recover then the additional £195 plus VAT is not payable. If we do recover more data and you are happy with the outcome then you pay the extra fee."

No where in there does it say we'll hold back the additional data we've recovered that you need if you don't pay. It does say if your not happy. I said I'd pay the 80%.

"If you are not happy with the extra data we can save then you do not have to pay the extra fee. We will just return the data we recovered from the first recovery attempt."

So once again the goal posts had moved. The only thing recoverd was my photo albums, no music, no films.

So my initial qouter of 195+ VAT finished up at £635. And that was capped don't forget at £500. Something R3 had warned me of over the phone but went with trust which sadly backfired into an expensive mistake.

There's no denying their skill in the profession of recovery. It's just sad that you become extremely vulnerable at their expense and are at the mercy of this company once they have your property.

Morale of the story, always back your stuff up. Other wise you are at the hands of some cunning professionals. Like I said theirs no denying their ability. The 1 album above all seems to be there, that's the reason I gave them
2 stars. It just cost me 635 quid in the process. Such a shame they can't just be straight down the line

I highly recommend DTL Data Recovery, they have now helped me twice to recover my precious data despite only charging me once. I honestly couldn't fault there service.

Mike and his team have always provided a very thorough and professional service, and have always solved my issues in a timely manner. I was particularly pleased to have my Mac hard drive salvaged at a fraction of the price quoted by other companies. Highly recommended.

There are a lot of companies offering this service and after google'ing Data Recovery Liverpool and speaking with 5 or 6 companies, DTL stood out as being the most knowledgeable and genuine of the lot.

They collected my disk the very next day, provided a report of what was wrong and gave me a free quote. I accepted the quote and within 3 days they sent me a list of my files, I checked the list and made my payment. 48 hours later I had my precious files back. 5 star service!

Recovered sentimental photos off a USB that I thought would be impossible to get back given its state. Repaired and received in 3 days!
Would definitely recommend.

Datatrack were really helpful, and helped us to recover some key data from a failed RAID array. They let us know what was going on every step of the way.

I would advise to avoid this company at all costs. No response to emails (no direct line to call either) I would highly avoid. I have been desperately trying to get my property back for over 3 months and even sent them money for postage. They constantly try to sell the recovery to me despite me clearly saying I have changed my mind. For them to call me a liar is defamatory, and proves the type of company they are!

Paid in advance for the return of my Hard Drives, advised up to 21 day return delivery, it is now FIVE WEEKS.
They do not answer my emails and ignore me completely.
VERY POOR SERVICE AND AN APPARENT LOSS OF IN EXCESS OF £100.00 (AND DATA)
Looks like I may have this resolved by the 24th June, watch this space !

Resolved.

Starting with the free pickup of my dead Lacie NAS unit and then a complete 4TB data recovery of my RAID6 Array meant I got my kids photo's back!

I thoroughly recommended DTL Data Recovery and their prices are extremely competitive and they kept me informed throughout.

Happy Father from Edinburgh!

I had a fault with my external drive. These guys were thorough from the start, explained every element, kept in touch and did a great job! They recovered all the data from my disc! Excellent value and professional service, I would recommend to everyone! Many thanks

This is what you call a company to trust! I have lost very valuable data, but susspected the error might be smaller than i think ( adaptor ) . After an initial e-mail and phone chat with Michael, i was able not only to fully understand the processes of their internal audit and very sensible pricing, but actually managed to fire up the HDD myself. Now, i might not created a direct business for them, but its really rare company would value their customers so much, and instead of just counting on the profit, tried to actually help free of charge. This is what going an extra mile means.. I couldnt reccomend it better, and as a business owner myself i actually made a case study to my employes of how excellent service should look like. Michael not only went an extra mile, but also with care followed it up with me to make sure my data is all safe and sound now. Couldnt reccomend them better, and if you ever have a problem with data - dont think twice. This is the business to trust!! Very Happy! Thanks for all, Daniel.

Exceptional friendly and helpful service - together with good follow up.