The average computer user has only a vague understanding of how their data is stored. They know they have this “hard drive thingy” inside the computer and they know that’s where their data is kept. That’s about as far as it goes for most users. Many don’t even know what a hard drive looks like. However, when you are faced with data loss, you quickly learn a lot about hard drives. Not only do you begin to get an understanding about how complex they are, you also find out how expensive it can be to get your data back. At least once a day customers will ask “Why does it cost so much? I only paid $100 for my hard drive”. Yes, data recovery can be that expensive. My answer is simply this, if you had a million dollars sitting in a $50 safe, and you couldn’t get to it…does it really matter how much you paid for the safe? Data recovery should only be sought, if the value of the data exceeds the cost of the recovery.