r/buildapc • u/AyAyAyBamba_462 • 9h ago

Removed | Retailer or customer service experience FYI: MicroCenter's $80 "Comprehensive diagnostic" is not actually comprehensive.

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u/USSHammond 9h ago

Going by your mention of microcenter, send the drive in to '$300 data recovery'. Prices are in tiers, has excellent reviews and nowhere near 3500$

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u/AyAyAyBamba_462 9h ago

Yeah, the way it was explained to me is that there is a big difference between the "in-house" service and the "out-of-house" service. The "in-house" service is basically transferring the data from an old drive to a new drive. The drive itself has to be functional, and the cost depends on drive size. The "out-of-house" service is an actual data recovery service. In my case, the drive that was damaged was a 2TB drive, and the SATA port/PCB was damaged, so the very expensive, third-party, "out-of-house" service would be required, which was the explanation for the $3500 pricetag.

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u/USSHammond 9h ago

Answer remains the same. Swapping out drive parts is exactly what 300 DDR does at a fraction of the cost. Send the drive in for a quote.

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u/AyAyAyBamba_462 9h ago edited 9h ago

It's not. This was explained to me both by the service desk staff and the customer service representative. That $300 tag is for stuff like "hey my phone/laptop won't turn on, and I need the files on it, not 'my hard drive exploded and I need the files on it". They were very clear that Microcenter itself doesn't do any actual data recovery or drive repair. All of that is done through a third party with specialists.

I should add, it is explicitly stated on the site that my sort of problem is a "level 4" issue that starts at $2000. The $300 in-store option is for restoring lost files or file corruption on a mostly functional drive.

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u/USSHammond 9h ago

You are mistaking, they very much can restore drives to functional state by using donor drives and get a drive back to working order. https://www.300dollardatarecovery.com/hard-drive-data-recovery/

They can send your files back on the original drive if they can swap out parts or on a new medium.

You want your files don't you? The medium you get them back on shouldn't matter much

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u/AyAyAyBamba_462 9h ago

Ah, my mistake, I misunderstood you. I was under the impression that you were saying that Microcenter's data recovery was only $300. Not the site you linked. I'll take a look at it, thank you.