Data Recovery · Sacramento

RECOVER YOUR FILES.
RIGHT HERE.

Most recoveries are handled right here in Elk Grove by a technician you can call back. Advanced physical cases go to a specialized cleanroom partner, and we tell you before that happens.

“iGeek was able to retrieve the data out of this very old hard drive and do it in-house.”

Verified Google review

Call (916) 627-1818

8145 Elk Grove Blvd, Suite 12, Elk Grove, CA 95758 | Mon-Fri 10-5, Sat 10-3

Elk Grove, CA

8145 Elk Grove Blvd

Mon-Fri 10-5, Sat 10-3

Shop hours

Work done in-house

By our own technicians at our Elk Grove shop

(916) 627-1818

Call or request a callback

Common Scenarios

What does your situation look like?

Every case is different, but most data recovery work falls into one of these patterns. If you don't see yours, call us, we've probably seen it before.

Data recovery is part of our computer repair service in Elk Grove.

Drive won't show up

External hard drive plugged in but nothing happens? Usually a controller or connector issue, sometimes a logical failure we can resolve.

Accidentally deleted files

Emptied the recycle bin, formatted the wrong drive, lost a folder? If the drive hasn't been heavily written to, recovery is often straightforward.

Clicking or grinding noises

Mechanical hard drive making noises? This is typically a physical failure. We'll diagnose and tell you whether we can help or if it needs a cleanroom.

Water-damaged laptop or phone

Spilled coffee or dropped it in the sink? Often the drive itself survives even when the device doesn't. We can pull data from a dead device.

OS won't boot

Blue screen, kernel panic, stuck at the loading screen? Your files are usually still intact, we'll recover them and get you onto a working machine.

SSD failure

SSDs fail differently than hard drives, often suddenly, with no warning. We work on M.2 NVMe, SATA SSDs, and Apple soldered storage.

iPhone or Android died

Phone won't turn on after a drop, water exposure, or charging issue? We can often recover photos, contacts, and messages.

Unreadable USB drive

Plugged in your USB stick and got 'drive needs to be formatted'? Don't click yes. Bring it in.

Corrupted SD or memory card

Photos disappeared from your camera card or phone microSD? Often recoverable if the card isn't physically damaged.

RAID array failure

Multi-disk setups fail in complex ways. We work with RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 configurations from a single failed disk to a degraded array.

Dying drive (still works)

Drive is failing slowly: slow boots, file errors, SMART warnings? Bring it in before it dies. We clone it to a new drive while there's still time.

Dead Mac or PC

Computer won't power on but your files are on the internal drive? We can pull the drive, recover the data, and transfer to a working machine.

Drives & Media

We work on what you bring in.

Hard drives, SSDs, USB sticks, memory cards, RAID arrays, phones, tablets, external enclosures: pretty much any storage that holds data, we've worked on it.

Hard drives

2.5" and 3.5": laptop, desktop, external. SATA, IDE, legacy.

SSDs & NVMe

M.2 NVMe, SATA SSDs, Apple soldered storage, eMMC.

RAID arrays

RAID 0, 1, 5, 10, from a single failed disk to a degraded array.

USB sticks

Flash drives that won’t mount, "needs to be formatted", or corrupted.

SD & microSD cards

Camera cards, phone microSD, dashcam storage, GoPro media.

Phones

iPhone, Samsung Galaxy, Google Pixel, Android: water/drop/dead.

Tablets

iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Android tablets, Microsoft Surface.

External enclosures

WD My Book, Seagate Backup Plus, LaCie, G-Drive, OWC.

How it works

Four steps. No guesswork.

Most data recovery shops are vague about what happens after you hand over your drive. Here's exactly what happens with us.

Call or bring it in

Walk into our Elk Grove shop with the drive, computer, or phone. Or call (916) 627-1818 first if you want to talk it through.

In-shop diagnostic

We diagnose the device in-house at our Elk Grove shop, so you get answers from the technician actually looking at your drive. Ask about turnaround when you check in; it depends on the repair and parts availability.

Upfront quote

We tell you what's recoverable, what it'll cost, and how long it'll take. You decide whether to proceed, no pressure either way.

Recovery & transfer

If you greenlight the work, we recover what we can and transfer it to a new drive, external, or your replacement device.

Why iGeek

Local in-house vs. the alternatives.

Sacramento has three kinds of data recovery options. Here's how iGeek lines up against the big-box stores and the national mail-in labs.

Data Recovery: iGeek compared with the alternatives
	iGeek (Elk Grove)	Big-box (Best Buy / Geek Squad)	National labs
Where the work happens	Most jobs in-house at Elk Grove	Ships drive out	Ship-in only
Turnaround	Ask about turnaround when you check in; it depends on the repair and parts availability.	Shipped out for the work	Shipping both ways
Walk in and talk to a technician	Yes	Front desk only	Phone / email queue
Pricing	Every repair is quoted after inspection, before any work starts.	Variable; quoted late	Enterprise pricing
Honest about cleanroom limits	We'll tell you up front	Will quote and ship	Cleanroom in-house

iGeek (Elk Grove)

Where the work happens
Most jobs in-house at Elk Grove
Turnaround
Ask about turnaround when you check in; it depends on the repair and parts availability.
Walk in and talk to a technician
Yes
Pricing
Every repair is quoted after inspection, before any work starts.
Honest about cleanroom limits
We'll tell you up front

Big-box (Best Buy / Geek Squad)

Where the work happens
Ships drive out
Turnaround
Shipped out for the work
Walk in and talk to a technician
Front desk only
Pricing
Variable; quoted late
Honest about cleanroom limits
Will quote and ship

National labs

Where the work happens
Ship-in only
Turnaround
Shipping both ways
Walk in and talk to a technician
Phone / email queue
Pricing
Enterprise pricing
Honest about cleanroom limits
Cleanroom in-house

Real Recovery Stories

What our customers say after we recover their data.

“I wanted to get data off of a very old hard drive. I took it to Best Buy first but they needed to ship it out. I decided to take my hard drive back and see if iGeek was able to do it without shipping it. iGeek was able to retrieve the data out of this very old hard drive and do it in-house.”

Hard drive owner

Old hard drive | data retrieval | Nov 2024 | Verified Google review

Review 1 of 5Read our reviews on Google

Two kinds of data recovery

Honest about what we do in-house.

Data recovery splits into two categories. Most jobs we handle in our Elk Grove shop. A small share of physical failures need a certified cleanroom. Those go to a specialized cleanroom partner, and we’ll tell you up front so you can decide what makes sense.

In-house at iGeek

Logical recoveries

The drive still spins and the electronics work, but the data isn't accessible. We handle these directly at our Elk Grove location.

Deleted files / emptied recycle bin
Corrupted partitions or filesystems
OS won’t boot (Windows, macOS, Linux)
Failed Windows or macOS updates
Dying drives (slow, SMART warnings), clone before it dies
Most SSD logical failures
Phone/tablet data extraction from working storage
Format/reformat accidents

Cleanroom partner

Physical recoveries

The drive has physical damage: bad heads, motor failure, water-damaged platters. These require an ISO-certified cleanroom to open safely, so we send them to a specialized cleanroom partner.

Clicking, ticking, or grinding hard drives
Head crashes from drops or impact
Severely water-damaged platters
Burnt PCBs from power surges
Drives that won’t spin up at all
Spindle motor failures

We diagnose these in-shop and let you know if a cleanroom is needed before any work begins, and we coordinate the whole process with our partner. Every repair is quoted after inspection, before any work starts.

On Pricing

Why we don't post a price chart.

Data recovery isn’t like a screen repair where every unit is the same. What it costs depends on what’s actually wrong. A deleted-files job and a failed-SSD job aren’t the same project, even if they sound similar.

Here’s what we commit to instead: every job starts with an in-shop diagnostic at our Elk Grove location. Diagnostic fee quoted at check-in and applied to your repair if you proceed. After we know what’s wrong, we tell you exactly what it’ll cost and how long it’ll take. You decide whether to proceed before any work begins.

Frequently Asked

The questions we get most.

How much does data recovery cost at iGeek?

It depends on what’s wrong with your drive. We do an in-shop diagnostic first, then quote you up front before any work begins. Diagnostic fee quoted at check-in and applied to your repair if you proceed. Physical failures that need a cleanroom are a bigger job; we’ll tell you what to expect before you commit to anything.

How long does data recovery take?

Ask about turnaround when you check in; it depends on the repair and parts availability. Larger drives or complex jobs (RAID rebuilds, badly corrupted file systems) take longer than simple logical recoveries.

Can you recover data from a drive that's clicking?

Clicking hard drives are almost always a physical failure that needs an ISO-certified cleanroom to open. We don’t do cleanroom work in-house. We diagnose the issue, tell you your options, and if you proceed, we send the drive to a specialized cleanroom partner and coordinate the whole process.

Do you do mail-in data recovery?

Our preference is for you to drop the device off at our Elk Grove shop. It’s faster and safer for the drive. If you’re outside the Sacramento area and can’t come in, we do accept mail-in. Call us first to talk through the situation.

Are my files private during the recovery?

Yes. Your data is handled only by the technician working on the job, and for in-house recoveries it stays in our shop the entire time. If your case needs a cleanroom, the drive goes only to our specialized cleanroom partner, with your approval first. Either way, it’s securely returned to you (or destroyed at your direction) when the job is done.

What if you can't recover anything?

Diagnostic fee quoted at check-in and applied to your repair if you proceed. We always tell you the honest odds before you commit to any recovery work.

Can you recover data from a phone or tablet?

Yes, iPhones, Samsung Galaxy phones, Google Pixel, Android phones, iPads, and most tablets. Common scenarios are water damage, a broken screen with the device otherwise working, a dead battery, or a logic-board issue where the storage chip is still intact.

Do you recover data from SD cards and USB sticks?

Yes. Camera SD cards, phone microSD, dashcam storage, GoPro media, thumb drives. We work on all of them. If you got a “needs to be formatted” prompt on a USB stick or SD card, don’t click yes. Bring it in.

What should I do if my drive just died?

Power it off and leave it off. Continuing to power a failing drive can make recovery harder or impossible. Don’t try recovery software on it yourself if the data is important. Call us at (916) 627-1818 and we’ll talk you through the next step.

What should I NOT do before bringing it in?

When data matters, what you don’t do is just as important as what you do. Every one of these can turn a recoverable situation into a permanent loss:

Don’t keep plugging in a clicking or grinding hard drive; every spin-up can do more physical damage.
Don’t run repair or recovery software on a failing drive; it stresses the drive exactly when it’s most fragile.
Don’t initialize, format, or erase the drive, even if your computer prompts you to.
Don’t reinstall Windows or macOS on the same drive; the install can overwrite the files you’re trying to save.
Don’t rebuild a RAID array before it’s been diagnosed; a rebuild on a degraded array can destroy the data.
Don’t keep charging or powering on a liquid-damaged phone or laptop; power plus moisture accelerates corrosion and shorts.

Power it down, leave it alone, and bring it in. We’ll take it from there.

Is iGeek a local Sacramento business?

Yes. We’re located at 8145 Elk Grove Blvd in Elk Grove, CA, a few miles south of Sacramento off Highway 99. We serve Elk Grove and the Sacramento area.

Ready when you are

Let's get your files back.

Walk into our Elk Grove shop, give us a call, or have us reach out to you.