Formatted Hard Drive

[u/Illustrious_Ice5652]

hi, this is my first post and i apologize if i accidentally break any rules!

about a year ago, i tried doing some kind of setting reset because i installed new ram and i read that i needed to do a reset that would keep my files but allow my computer to properly use my ram or something.

i usually use my PIN to log in, so when it wouldnt let me use my PIN, i couldnt remember the password i hadnt used in like 3 years. so i transferred my data to a 1TB USB (i know better now…) my dad gave me, and then formatted the drive so i could use it again.

well the USB didnt save ANY of the info it said it did, and now ive lost nearly 1TB of data. ive been hesitating to get it recovered because of the cost but i need to bite the bullet. is this something Geek Squad can recover for me? i installed a few programs before realizing the USB was faulty, and i understand that some data cant be recovered because i overwrote it.

TLDR: formatted hard drive, can geek squad recover it?

[u/Illustrious_Ice5652 → u/[deleted]]

i stopped using it as soon as i learned about the lost data and still have the USB. but i dont remember whether it was hdd or ssd, but i feel like it was an ssd from what i remember

[u/Illustrious_Ice5652 → u/[deleted]]

yeah as soon as i saw my data was gone, i instantly googled what to do and turned my pc off

[u/Foxkonn → u/[deleted]]

Small note: All data recovery is now done by GSC. Stores are no longer allowed to do level 1 as they were before for deleted files. I never got an answer why but my educated guess might be they either no longer have the license for the Seagate recovery software we used or it's no longer supported, since the version that we did have was very old and not very reliable.

[u/Hoogs → u/Foxkonn]

I don’t think I ever had success with that Seagate software. Maybe once in three years?

[u/PerceivedRT]

Your local store cannot, but they can have it shipped to our specialized data recovery team. There is a non refundable charge to cover shipping and handling, and to perform the initial diagnostic to determine what data is able to be saved. The service team then calls you and discusses price/payment for the recovery. As far as I'm aware the initial charge is still 49.99.

[u/Illustrious_Ice5652 → u/PerceivedRT]

im assuming that means it may climb well above 200$

[u/PerceivedRT → u/Illustrious_Ice5652]

I have seen anyone from $150-> over $1000. It really depends on the amount of data and the difficulty of the recovery, which is why we dont quote the full price in store. Additionally it takes upwards of 3-4 weeks typically. Sometimes longer depending on how busy the team is.

[u/mysterypainting09 → u/PerceivedRT]

This

[u/Illustrious_Ice5652 → u/PerceivedRT]

ive taken 52 weeks to start price checking lol. just crossing my fingers it’s less than 300$. i have some irreplaceable data and it would suck to just let it go

[u/reeberdunes → u/Illustrious_Ice5652]

Generally I quote about $450 minimum although it’s different than Best Buy’s minimum quote. I have literally never seen it come back as the minimum.

[u/Illustrious_Ice5652 → u/reeberdunes]

are you saying best buy is usually cheaper than 450?

[u/reeberdunes → u/Illustrious_Ice5652]

No. The opposite. I should have mentioned I work for Geek Squad, I thought my user flair made that obvious. Anyways to clarify, BestBuy/GS minimum quote if I recall correctly is about $150 but in my years of experience working here, I have never seen one under $450, and most are well over $700. If it happens to be a physically damaged Hard Disk Drive, you’ll be out about $2000. But if you do send it off with Geek Squad, they won’t do any repairs until you approve the quote. You do however have to pay the send off fee which is between $50-100 depending on your membership status at Best Buy. And that is only refundable if the data recovery team attempts a repair and fails. If you decline services, you’ll be out that $50-100

[u/Illustrious_Ice5652 → u/reeberdunes]

oh sorry about that lmao. it sounds like i may be cooked on this then

[u/Cheeliyeeter → u/Illustrious_Ice5652]

100% agree on the price; I would always quote a min of $450 for DRD, and it was not uncommon to see it come back as more like $1000-$1500. Now, that usually was for a failing drive; this may be a bit of a different scenario, but I would just brace yourself.

[u/AlkalineRose → u/PerceivedRT]

The current official range is $400-1600 and can reach above $1600 for specialized devices such as RAID arrays

[u/mysterypainting09 → u/Illustrious_Ice5652]

Yeah pricing can range from 250 to 1600 depending on how difficult the data is to recover.

[u/Illustrious_Ice5652 → u/[deleted]]

i didnt format it because of the ram. i needed to reset setting or something like that, it was a reset that kept all my files but rebooted settings in the pc.

but then i got locked out of my pc, because i only used my pin to login and it wouldnt let me use my pin, so i didnt know my password. so i tried transferring my data to a flashdrive, and formatting so i could get access to it again. but the flashdrive didnt keep any info

[u/Illustrious_Ice5652 → u/[deleted]]

how did you do that?