If we do not recover your data to the agreed standard, you do not pay a success fee. This page defines exactly what “recovered” means at each recovery level, how the critical file register works, and what the upfront component on complex cases covers.
Free diagnostic. Written estimate. You only pay the success fee when we hand back your data and it meets the threshold for your recovery level, or contains the specific files you nominated. Levels 3 to 5 carry a fixed upfront component for parts and laboratory time; that component is the only amount you can pay on a case that does not succeed, and your estimate states it in writing before you commit.
Data recovery is performed on equipment that has already failed, so no laboratory can promise a result before the work is done. What we can promise is how you are charged. The success fee on every estimate is conditional: it is only payable when we recover your data to the agreed standard and return it to you. If the recovery falls short and you do not elect to take a partial result, no success fee is charged and your device is returned free of charge.
The “agreed standard” is one of two things, and you choose which applies to your case before work begins:
A minimum percentage of the addressable user data on the device, set by the recovery level (see section 02). This suits most cases where you want “as much as possible back”.
A written list of the specific folders or files you need. We focus on those items only and the percentage does not apply. This suits cases where a handful of files matter more than the rest of the drive.
Thresholds step down as complexity rises because severely damaged media (scratched platters, failed NAND, fire or water damage) physically cannot return every sector. The level is set at the free diagnostic and stated on your estimate.
Addressable user data means the files that existed on the device at the time of failure, excluding operating system files, applications, caches and free space. Where the original file count cannot be established (for example a destroyed file system), the engineer documents the basis for the percentage on the file listing you review.
Locked and forensic devices. Locked-phone extractions and forensic engagements use a staged structure instead of the Level 1 to 5 ladder. Each stage states on the estimate whether its fee is fixed or success-based and, where success-based, what threshold applies to that stage.
Most people do not need every file on a failed drive; they need the family photos from a particular year, one accounting database, or a folder of project files. The critical file register lets you define success around those items.
Before work begins you give us a written list of the folders, file types or specific files you need, as precisely as you can.
Recovery effort is directed at those items first and the overall percentage threshold no longer applies to your case.
Your file listing shows each nominated item as recovered, partially recovered or not recoverable, with the reason.
Success fee is payable when the nominated items are returned functional. If they are not, no success fee applies, even if other data was recovered.
The register must be agreed before we start the recovery, because it changes how the engineer approaches the media. It cannot be added after the result is known. Everything else we recover is still returned to you with the nominated files.
A file only counts toward the threshold, or satisfies the register, if it is functional: it opens in its native application and its content is intact. We do not count:
Files that are present in the listing but fail to open or open with damaged content.
Files reconstructed from raw sectors without their original name, folder or date are reported separately and are not preferred evidence of success.
Operating system, application and cache files are excluded from the count entirely.
Data recovered in encrypted form counts only if you hold the key and the decrypted files are functional.
Levels 1 and 2 never carry an upfront charge. Levels 3, 4 and 5 carry a fixed upfront component that is shown in dollars on your estimate (never a percentage), invoiced once you accept the estimate, and required before work starts.
It exists because physical recoveries consume real resources whether or not the media gives up its data: donor drives and head assemblies, controller and NAND components, consumables for clean-air work, and many hours of imaging time. The upfront component pays for those resources and is not refundable once work has begun.
The success fee on the same estimate remains fully conditional. If a Level 4 case does not reach 70%, you pay the upfront component already invoiced and nothing else, and your device and any partial data options are handled under our Terms of Service.
You will never be asked for an upfront payment that was not on the written estimate you accepted. If a case is re-classified after work begins (for example a second fault is found), we stop, explain, and issue a revised estimate for you to accept or decline.
Before any success fee is paid you receive a file listing showing names, folders, sizes and dates, and where practical sample files.
You have 7 days to review the listing against the threshold or your register and raise any concerns before payment.
After delivery you have 14 days to open and check your files. Anything that does not match the listing is investigated and, where we cannot put it right, the fee is adjusted.
If the threshold is not met you may elect within 14 days to purchase the partial result at a reduced fee agreed in writing, or decline it at no charge.
Yes. The standard laboratory diagnostic is free, the Australia Post Express label to reach us is free, and if you decline the estimate the device comes back to you free.
That is below the 80% threshold, so no success fee is payable. You can choose to take the partial result at a reduced, agreed fee, or have the device returned at no charge.
No. The register has to be agreed before work begins because it changes the recovery strategy. You can, however, nominate a register at the estimate stage on any level.
On Levels 1 and 2, nothing. On Levels 3 to 5, only the fixed upfront component that was on the estimate you accepted; the success fee is not charged.
Forensic and locked-device engagements are staged. Each stage on the estimate states whether its fee is fixed or success-based. Where a stage is success-based, the threshold for that stage is written on the estimate.
Some earlier service pages referred to a 99% figure. The thresholds on this page are the current site-wide policy and apply to every estimate issued from the date shown at the top of this page.
Ask us before you send your device if anything here is unclear
Keep a copy of the No Data No Fee Policy with your estimate