Procedure and costs

We are hap­py to give you an over­view of the data extra­c­tion pro­cess. We use over 200 dif­fe­rent dri­ves, which make it pos­si­ble to extra­ct data from many types of media. It does not mat­ter what for­mat the media was ori­gi­nal­ly used in (DOS, Win­dows, MAC, Linux, etc.).

  1. You send us your media
    Plea­se send us your media exclu­si­ve­ly as an insu­red packa­ge and very well packa­ged, i.e. with at least 10 cm distance bet­ween the media and the edges of the box.
  2. Ana­ly­sis, pri­ces, and cost esti­ma­tes for pro­ble­ma­tic media
    Suc­cessful data extra­c­tion depends on many fac­tors. We ana­ly­ze the for­mat and con­di­ti­on of all media imme­dia­te­ly upon receipt. If your media is in accep­ta­ble con­di­ti­on, we will read it at a fixed pri­ce. Plea­se ask for the exact pri­ce for your media, as we have expe­ri­ence with over 700 dif­fe­rent types and the effort invol­ved varies. If the­re is also media in poor con­di­ti­on, the amount of work invol­ved in recon­s­truc­tion increa­ses. In such cases, you will recei­ve a bin­ding offer for the­se pro­ble­ma­tic media imme­dia­te­ly after the assess­ment, inclu­ding the con­di­ti­on of your files (what can be extra­c­ted and what can­not), with an exact list of the effort invol­ved and a bin­ding deli­very date. Only then do you deci­de whe­ther and what to do with the­se media. Ana­ly­sis and cost esti­ma­tes for dama­ged media are always free of char­ge. You can, of cour­se, reject the cost esti­ma­te; in this case, you only pay for the return ship­ping of the media. This approach is fair for both sides and cle­ar­ly sets us apart from the com­pe­ti­ti­on, who often char­ge an “exami­na­ti­on fee” that is only off­set if you place an order. We belie­ve in our work and know that spe­cu­la­ti­ve state­ments do not help our cus­to­mers or us. The­r­e­fo­re, our cus­to­mers do not have to pay for pro­ble­ma­tic media until a dif­fe­rent cost esti­ma­te has been approved.
  3. Extra­c­tion of your data
    For media in good con­di­ti­on, we get star­ted right away; for pro­ble­ma­tic media, we wait for your feed­back. Even if the extra­c­tion ends up being more com­plex, we stand by our word! Both in terms of the fixed pri­ce for media in good con­di­ti­on and the cost esti­ma­te for pro­ble­ma­tic media. Howe­ver, if it turns out that data extra­c­tion is impos­si­ble, you will of cour­se not incur any cos­ts. In such cases, we work with com­pa­nies that can still help with some types of media and will make appro­pria­te sug­ges­ti­ons to you. You only pay us if the data extra­c­tion has been successful! *
  4. Pay­ment
    Once the work is com­ple­te, we will send you a detail­ed over­view of the extra­c­ted data tog­e­ther with the invoice befo­re you make any pay­ment. The invoice amount will cor­re­spond to the cost esti­ma­te, so the­re will be no nasty sur­pri­ses. Guaranteed!
  5. Down­load or return ship­ment on a new data car­ri­er
    After we recei­ve your pay­ment, we will make your encrypt­ed data available for down­load (free of char­ge)**. We will send you the pass­word by text mes­sa­ge or fax. Alter­na­tively, we can also copy the data (for an addi­tio­nal char­ge) onto a USB stick/hard dri­ve or burn it onto a DVD and then send it to you.

His­to­ri­cal formats?Please note that we some­ti­mes extra­ct files that were crea­ted with his­to­ri­cal pro­grams and can no lon­ger be read with today’s soft­ware. If this is the case, we will be hap­py to help you con­vert this data into modern for­mats. Get an over­view under the hea­ding: File con­ver­si­on.

* We con­sider data extra­ction to be successful if at least 70% of the data could be extrac­ted successful­ly.** In a German data center.