Secure Data Recovery Services
Reviews and Complaints

As an amateur photographer, I was devastated when my external hard drive crashed/was no longer accessible! Most importantly it contained 20 years of family photos including all the photos of my kid's school years. It was a WD product that crashed and they recommended Secure Data. I am always skeptical of companies I don't have personal experience with so I was very skeptical when Elliot answered my call. Elliot was so patient with me - answered all my questions - ensured my satisfaction with their service (which I was still leery of) - and even worked with me on payment options/arrangements. Saying all of that...I would absolutely recommend Secure Data for any of the services you need! Elliot sent me a label to use to mail him my damaged hard drive - he notified me when it was received - he then notified me again when the technician was working on my device - and then followed up to let me know all the data had been recovered - I received the recovered data today and I'm still going through it all (it's alot) but at this point, I am 100% satisfied! I will absolutely be using Secure Data in the future and recommending them to all my family & friends! ASK FOR ELLIOT!

I never write reviews about products or services unless it is something truly worthwhile to share. You would think that businesses understand that they should "do what they say they are going to do" in their advertisements.
In my case, I accidentally "quick formatted" an external drive and thought all the files were lost. I tried to go to an electronics retailer (where we have a membership) and the so-called IT experts said "there is nothing on the drive and there is nothing we can do".
I only found Secure Data via a search and hadn't heard of them before this incident. My rep, Eric Dvorin, made the process of submitting my drive simple and kept me informed of the recovery process during the entire time. Customers pay nothing until there is a recovery. Secure Data shows you the files they recovered before you pay. How great is that?
It is great to know that a service like this exists which almost makes up for my accidental drive format. I never would have found this service were it not for my actions. Secure Data *** be my go-to vendor if a future incident occurs.
To summarize - if Secure Data did it for me, they can do it for you and if they can't you pay nothing. Thank you Secure Data!

An overnight line of severe storms this spring left my basement 15" deep in water. Unfortunately, my computer was sitting on the basement floor in my office. The machine was destroyed, I was afraid the drive was lost as well.

I called Secure Data Recovery, to see what they could do and spoke to Eli Robinson. He said they would examine the drive and see if it could be saved and they would only charge me if they could recover data. I sent in my drive and within a few days received an assessment that the drive could be accessed and there was a good chance data could be recovered. I authorized them to proceed and once again there was no cost unless they could recover data. Fortunately, they were able to recover all the data on the drive.

Eli and his team worked with me on pricing to help me to afford with the recovery. It was a pleasure to work with him as he was very responsive, professional and friendly.

If you have a need for drive recovery, I recommend you give Secure Data Recovery a call and ask for Eli. With their no payment until data is recovered policy the only thing you are risking is a minor postage fee for returning the drives if recovery isn't possible.

Thanks again for your great service!

The experience with Secure Data Recovery has been the very best, despite having the issue that caused me to search for assistance. I had called several different providers that were very vague about what they would do and what they considered their possibility of success. They were also unable to give me a cost without the exact amount of data lost, even though I knew within a few hundred MB. Randall P. at SDR was very helpful, polite, knowledgeable and he provided everything I needed to make a decision. Knowing that if they could not recover, I would not be charged, along with their success rate for recovery, made the decision easy. My drive had about 1.1 TB of data and it was all recovered successfully. I was sent the directory to verify that it was the data I had lost and knew that I was being charged the quoted amount, based on several timelines. While all personal files, mostly made up of catalogued photos, it is very important to me. While I try to make certain that I am taking the correct actions to prevent this type of loss, I realize that it is not always as simple as it sounds. Going forward, I will not hesitate to call Randall P and the team at Secure Data Recovery Services for business or personal data.

Tim*** was an absolute joy to work with during the harrowing experience of losing all the data pertaining to my small business, which I had just started earlier this year and whose information was critical for my professional recordkeeping. His communication of the available services/priorities and pricing was exceptional, and he was even able to work with me on a payment plan to ensure that I could manage the total (which I will admit, was quite a bit - the drive had sustained significant damage as a result of the corruption).

I received a drive the very next day (a secure USB) once the balance was paid, with a comprehensive list of instructions from Tim about how to decrypt/access it, and was very pleased with the iPhone app interface and usability. The files were all well-organized (I knew that the file names would be lost), and given the timestamps of each I was actually able to recover about 90% of the lost data, and 100% of the main files I actually sought (expense sheets, invoices, business plan versions, etc.).

I would highly recommend Secure Data Recovery Services, no matter what degree or severity of data loss you encounter. Tim made this all possible, and I really appreciate all of his help and time.

I nearly cried when I found out that my hard drive was not recoverable by my local computer guys. As many folks do, I neglected to back up particular drive. I thought: I don't have time right now and what are the chances it will crash on me! I ended up losing all the pictures of my new adopted kids (which happen to be kittens!). I am a hobby photographer so my photos are everything and can take a long time to back up! My local computer guys recommended Secure Data Recovery. Working with Kurt Pietrick was wonderful! He walked me through the steps and made sure I understood that no money would change hands unless they could recover my files.

Here are my results:
Results of recovery are as follows - Full recovery:
Good data:
XXXXX files / 1838 folders (99.99%)
560.8 GB

6 damaged files, size - 327.2 MB (0.01%)
% of Data Recovered: 99.99%

Just look at the total number of files that I could have lost! Only 6 corrupt files, thankfully 6 files that I can recreate or I don't care about. Is it somewhat costly? Yes, and they will work with you!

When I got my recovered files back, I nearly cried again! Not only that, but the data came back in partition and folders, just the way I had them organized! I am thrilled beyond belief!
Thank you Secure Data Recovery!

Fantastic Experience. *** was my Dedicated Account Representative with Secure Data Recovery Services and frankly she was the reason that I selected Secure Data Recovery Services for the recovery of data off a External Hard Drive that had malfunctioned.
Responsiveness. Literally within minutes of me sending Secure Data Recovery an email requesting assistance Anna called me and we talked about my problem. Immediately following her phone call, I received an email thoroughly documenting the process to repair my hard drive, timeline for repair, costs, etc. Included in the email was a prepaid shipping label! I received an email when Secure Data Recovery Services received my defective external hard drive and when they started the actual recovery process. Once the data had been recovered, I received an email from Anna outlining the number of files that were recovered and those that were damaged beyond repair. (This is what's amazing to me: I had 202,952 good files (585.28Gb) and 24 bad files). And yes, Anna was keeping me updated as to when I would receive my recovered data!
Throughout the entire process Anna was polite, courteous, professional, accessible, but most of all understanding.
In the event you have a data loss I highly recommend you contact Anna K with Secure Data Recovery Services - you won't be disappointed.

Worst case scenario - after a solid state hard drive crashed - discovering that the remote backup solution was missing a critical directory of database files. Yet, here we are, back on-line one week later, thanks to Secure Data Recovery. Huge shout out to Timothy Rutan, who answered my initial call to their 800 number. I explained that we needed to recover database files and Timothy assured me that this is exactly the type service performed at Secure Data Recovery. As Timothy explained the process to me, immediately that horrible feeling in my gut began to subside. Timothy offered to overnight a pre-paid FedEx shipping label, but I opted to deliver the drive in person - since they had a drop-off location not to far away. Timothy kept me in the loop during the entire process, by phone and email. I was alerted when they received the hard drive, again when the initial diagnostics began, and again when they were completed. I was offered options for turn-around time, and again alerted when the work began, and received a technical summary after the work was completed. Next day, FedEx delivered an external hard-drive containing all the data recovered from the crashed drive. Our database is back on-line and we are fully operational! They also returned the original crashed hard drive. I think I'll keep that on my desk as a reminder to periodically verify my backups...

When a power outage caused a mechanical hard drive failure, we contacted SDR and spoke with Jake Gambatese. He asked pertinent questions, clearly explained the recovery process options and estimated a range of pricing. We especially liked the quick turn-around, the all-inclusive pricing, SDR's "no recovery, no charge" guarantee, and an agreement written in plain English.

Jake immediately emailed a prepaid Fedex label and we shipped the drive to SDR. The next business day, we received the diagnosis and pricing, signed off and, 4 business days later, an encrypted hard drive with our data on it was shipped to us.

The entire process took 10 business days, SDR's 'standard service.' Throughout, Jake informed us as each step in the process was completed. He answered any question we had and offered us further assistance with our recovery here should we need it.

Jake's knowledge, attention to detail and timely, clear communication is among the best I've experienced in over 30 years in the IT business. His professionalism and demeanor helped assure us the job would be done as we hoped. As it turned out, SDR exceeded our expectations.

As a business owner who hangs his hat on providing the best service in our industry, I'm fond of saying great customer service is like great art, I can't define it, but I know it when I see it. In the case of both Jake and SDR, we certainly have. They have our highest recommendation. Many thanks!

Excellent customer service. 100% retrieval. Long post but here it goes...I must give a huge shoutout to Jake Gambatese with the company Secure Data Recovery. I did not realize the importance of backing up all my data on two devices. One of my external hard drives crashed and I took it to a local shop and they could not retrieve the data. They told me to search for a company online that specializes in data recovery. What data did I lose? My grandchildren's pictures for the past two years and the last season of football for my college senior. I had an entire season of game video and pictures of him and his teammates. I make his friends posters and highlight videos of their seasons so I needed the pictures and videos. It was devastating. I researched companies and reviews and the one that I kept coming back to was Secure Data Recovery. I contacted them and they emailed me the information I needed to send my device off for an estimate. I was worried that the cost would be too much for me to spend as I am just an individual (social worker without a great income) not a large company they often service. However, Jake Gambatese realized my predicament and reached out to his superiors to get me the best price for the data retrieval. The turnaround was fast, customer service excellent, and I could not be more pleased. 100% of the data was retrieved. Almost 2TB worth of data. So, I highly recommend Jake and the company he is employed by. Pam Brewer

I was helped by Jake at Secure Data Recovery and he was excellent! I had the unique situation of having a drive that I had previously sent in for recovery to a different service. However, the recovery I received from them was missing several critical files, and a majority of the files were misplaced and in wrong directories. I explained my situation to Jake and how it was important for me to be sure that I wouldn't end up with the same messy recovery job I got last time. Jake was able to consult with the engineers and get a confirmation that the critical files I was most concerned about recovering were indeed recoverable and seemingly in the right places. He went out of his way to help me feel comfortable and confident in their services before I proceeded. When I received the drive, it was incredible. The entire drive as far as I could tell was completely intact and all my files were there in the correct directories. They were able to recover about a decade's worth of important files that I thought I would never see again. I can't thank Jake and the people at Secure Data enough for recovering so many years' worth of data for me, including my college portfolio and other very important personal projects and files I had lost. Thanks again to Jake for the extremely helpful service as well! I highly recommend these guys if you have data that seems lost beyond recovery because they basically perform miracles over there to recover it all. Thanks guys!

The group here did great things for me, truly. After my hard drive failed with all my pictures and videos on it, the very day I was planning to back them all up to a cloud storage, I was devastated. Unsure of where to go, I had initially called up another recovery service, and one that I had been referred to by my company. They were plenty helpful, but after a quote of a little over $1,000, I was devastated. I am a college student and don't just casually have $1,000 to drop on some pictures, even if they carry some of my fondest memories. Disappointed, I continued searching. Finally, coming across Secure Data Recovery after searching for places more local to me, I gave them a call. A very productive one, at that, and it took an hour at most. They had informed me that they could manage to work with me immensely on the price with some additional reasonable trade-offs, and that I would need to provide a backup drive. INCREDIBLE. With the priority next-day label they printed for me, I was well on my way to getting everything back, and with a smile on my face. I shipped it off, a little wary because I hadn't ever done this before, but with enough trust brought on by Randall to really feel happy about how it all was going down. Fast forward a few weeks and it was already done! The service was much faster than I expected, but I got the replacement drive sent out, and before I knew it, they had them both back to me, and now all of my data is recovered. Both drives are physically intact as well and were packaged wonderfully. Finally, I think I may just be a little bit more talkative than they're used to, but even if you are like me and are near-obsessed with full communication the entire way through, they were absolutely more than happy to ensure that I was updated and completely told about everything that was going on. I'm impressed, satisfied, and while I hope I never have to come back to you guys again, I certainly know who to contact if I'm ever in this position.

I've been dealing with Eric from Secure Data Recovery in Cleveland, OH since 09/17. I shipped out hard drives and they arrived the next day. Initial email responses were decent, then became infrequent. It took days to get findings, and one drive's status remained unclear. I had to inquire about the third drive's updates. Expected better customer service from a recommended company. We needed more info and asked to speak with an engineer, but Eric didn't facilitate this. We tried discussing this over the phone but his knowledge seemed lacking. On 11/04, I requested two drives back. I approved overnight shipping on 11/05, but they weren't sent. Multiple attempts to contact Eric failed. On 11/12, I emailed him about not receiving the drives. Eric replied on 11/12, still focused on the third drive, ignoring my request. On 12/03, I asked for a supervisor's contact. Another rep gave me the manager's extension. The manager emailed on 12/04, acknowledging the issue. I requested the director's contact six times from different reps, to no avail. Over a month passed without receiving my drives. Despite a good company rating, my experience with unreturned calls and undelivered drives was frustrating. I paid for shipping, so why are my drives still with them? Their service doesn't merit even a one-star review.

I am attempting to retrieve my vehicle from ***. Due to their refusal to answer questions or provide accurate information, they were able to keep my car for an additional 24 hours beyond necessary. And, this has resulted in excess fees being owed by me in order to retrieve my car.

I sent in a hard drive to be recovered postage paid FedEx. The diagnostics revealed there was physical damage to the internals of the drive, and a complete recovery would not be possible. They did not tell me what was recoverable. They gave me a quote of *** minimum to recover what they could. I declined, due to the price and not knowing what was recoverable and asked for my drive back, which was in their site stating a payment of *** shipping. Ever since declining service, they will not respond back in any manner. I have sent multiple questions and emails to ***, my representative, and the customer service center and have heard nothing. I want to know how to get my property back as promised. Secure Data Recovery Case No. XXXXXX

I dealt with unresponsiveness after sending 2 emails and voice mails to retrieve my hard drive. No response. My hard drive crashed in mid-May, and I found Secure Data for recovery. After contact, a representative explained their process. I agreed to an analysis of my drive. I sent it via FedEx, and the quote was too high. I requested the return of my drive, acknowledging shipping costs. Despite my emails and calls, there's been no reply. I'm ready to pay for shipping; I just want my drive back. The lack of communication has left me considering a complaint.

Case No. CDS-XXXXXX. Computer damaged by vendor. Company unresponsive. No data recovery completed with 5-7 day service agreement. -I selected company to help me recover deleted text messages on my Apple iMac. -Computer shipped on 9/22 to company by the preferred vendor in Denver that the company sent me to. -Notified on 9/23 that computer was received, and signed service agreement for data recover scan within 5-7 days. -Notified on 9/30 that company's preferred shipping vendor damaged screen. -Received several commitments that data analysis was underway, but 5 weeks later I have received no information on requested service. -I have made 4 phone calls and sent 6 emails requesting status updates and have received no response. -I went to the company because I needed help, and I worry now that the whole thing is a scam.

They will lie to you to make a sale and then try to hide behind a NO REFUND policy. I sent in my hard drive to see if any videos could be saved for my YouTube channel. I pay *** for the recovery, initial it was ***. I received the hard drive and when I check their "GOOD LIST" of recovered data with my videos. Half of them are folders with word doc no videos or even damaged videos to be used. I started the charge back process and they tell my bank. I'm trying to commit fraud. Out of the 78 video folders only 40 work and had videos on their "GOOD LIST". They lied and stated I verified the "GOOD LIST" which is in impossible because I received my hard drive back on 02/17 and they made list on in January . I can't verify data recovered without the hard drive. They do shady practices and don't hold up to their customer satisfaction claims. DO NOT USE THEM you have been warned!

I paid *** for a drive recovery, the most expensive and fastest option. I sent in the drive and waited, and waited. After a few days I called to see the status of the drive because I was told someone would reach out to me and never did. They assured me that they are working on it, and not to worry. I waited a few more days for an update, and the same story. process took about to weeks, when the plan recovery plan I purchased stated 1-3 days. They will never reach out to you unless you call them. I was also promised overnight shipping, which took 5 days to arrive. I called them after I received my drive, and they told me that's the normal process, and there's nothing they can do. Biggest overall concern is that they will never call you, and the process will take longer than expected. 0/5. I would definitely go with another service. Case started *** Cost *** Case No. XXXXXX

My hard drive died and they did not recover anything. My hard drive died and I decided to have it repaired because it had some important stuff on it for me. I found secure data they boasted that they had a 97% recovery rate. I sent them the hard drive and 4 months later they tell me that they can't recover all of it they were going to charge me $*** so they knocked it down to $500 and sent me a list of what worked and what didn't work. When I received the hard drive however nothing worked on it. Everything I opened said it had errors and so essentially I paid $500 for an empty hard drive of icons. I called them back and they said it is what it is and they were not willing to give me a refund. These people are unscrupulous and they definitely do not have their customers best interest at hand regardless of how much they talk about it on their website and in the ad that plays over and over again while you're on hold. 97% recovery rate? Please I would have been better off not even sending it to them.

I paid over *** to this company to retrieve my data from a water damaged laptop back in September. My case number is XXXXXX. On September 1, *** emailed me letting me know that the recevied my request for the data recovery of my hard drive from my laptop. I dropped of my hard drive at, *** E. Fifth *** floor. *** Oh XXXXX. From September 1 to April 21, I have reached out numerous of times in regards to my data. Back in December, I requested a full refund due to being told that my data was shipped out, however I never received it. On 10/22,I paid $140.52. On 10/17, I paid $***. My invoice number is, XXXXXX and XXXXXX. I requested a refund in January after numerous of emails and calls. I reached out to *** back in February whom I was told was a manager. He didn't seem confident enough to resolve my issue. At this point, I just would like a full refund. I paid for a service that was never delivered and very incompetent on their end.

Dropped off product to fix in person, later claimed it would be over $1K+ to fix. Then refused to let me retrieve item in person. Forced me to ship. After communicating with an employee, I dropped off a hard drive in person to be repaired with Secure Data Recovery in Downtown Brooklyn. I entered the building after signing in at the security desk. I then waited 30 minutes in the SDR lobby, which was shared with many other offices, and was able to handoff the drive to their front desk attendant. At no point did I meet or speak with a SDR employee in person. Several days later, they claimed the drive would cost between $1-2K to repair. I asked to retrieve the drive and they refused by saying they 'didn't have the workflow to allow in-person pickup'. The only option would be shipping the drive back to me, which would be an out of pocket expense on my part and would potentially allow more damage to the drive while in transit. I pleaded with them to pick up in person. Yet, no. I had to pay for shipping. These business practices do not make sense and make the consumer feel like their intellectual property and physical property is being held for ransom. They refused and did not offer any other solutions, all the time living two blocks away from the original drop location.

I was informed via email and phone that the service for my laptop would take 10 days, yet it took over 30. Despite being assured of a quick turnaround, the actual process was delayed. Initial promises of 1-2 days for a diagnosis were followed by an email confirming possible recovery, but then I was informed of an additional 5-9 business days wait. After requesting cancellation, I was referred to a non-cancellable 'contract'. On October 25th, I was notified of data recovery, well past the promised timeframe, without explanation. As of September 30th, the data was no longer needed, yet the company refuses a refund for the unmet service terms. The company's Head of Customer Experience has not resolved the issue, insisting on the timeframe being an estimate, contradicting the explicit 5-9 business days listed on their site and my account. I object to paying for unfulfilled services.