Data recovery pricing varies depending on what’s wrong with the drive and how much work is required to get your data back. Unlike most industries, the job can’t be fully scoped until it’s been assessed — so we never quote blind.

At SouthBit, every job starts with a free 24-hour written assessment. Once we’ve examined your drive, we send you a clear, fixed quote in ZAR before any paid work begins. You only pay if we successfully recover your data.

What determines the price?

The main factors are: the type of failure (logical vs physical), the drive capacity, the condition of the platters or NAND chips, whether donor parts are needed, and how long the imaging process takes. A drive with a straightforward firmware issue will cost considerably less than one requiring a head stack swap with a matching donor drive.

We use professional-grade tools including the PC-3000 UDMA, DeepSpar Disk Imager, and HddSurgery head transplant tools — the same equipment used by leading labs worldwide. This isn’t cheap to run, and it’s reflected in recovery costs. But it’s also why our success rate is high.

Will I know the price before committing?

Yes, always. Our process is: you send or bring in the drive → we assess it for free within 24 hours → you receive a written quote → you decide whether to proceed. There is no pressure and no commitment required at the assessment stage. If you don’t want to go ahead, we return your drive at no charge.

For full pricing details, visit our data recovery pricing page.

What if recovery is unsuccessful?

Our no fix, no fee policy means you pay nothing for the recovery labour if we can’t get your data back. The only exception is third-party donor parts purchased specifically for your case — this will always be disclosed upfront before any cost is incurred.