Data recovery: is it covered by a warranty?
It might seem logical to assume that, should a type of storage media fail
whilst it is still under warranty, the manufacturer will not only replace
and/or repair the device, but should foot the bill for any data recovery work that
may be required too. After all, you wouldn’t have lost the data if the device
hadn’t failed. Unfortunately, however, this isn’t the case and Fields Data
Recovery is yet to come across a warranty that covers the cost of recovering lost data. But why is this?
Well, for one thing, data recovery can be expensive. If parts need to be
replaced or a clean room used then the costs of recovering lost data can grow.
Simply replacing a faulty drive with a brand new one, on the other hand, is
eminently affordable for the manufacturers of such devices.
Equally relevant is the fact that it is extremely difficult to determine the
actual monetary value of the data held on a device. This is precisely why, more
often than not, the exact wording of the disclaimer present on many types of
storage media reads: ‘the manufacturer is not responsible for the data held on
this device.’ Without such a disclaimer, the company could be deemed to be
accountable for some truly astronomical costs – imagine, for example, if the
data that had been lost was a potentially valuable algorithm, patent etc. You
may have recently heard about how valuable bitcoins have become – imagine how
much a manufacturer would need to pay out if such data was lost?
If manufacturers didn’t protect themselves, then just one failed device
could cost them millions of pounds, if not more. Covering the costs of
recovering data lost from one of their devices could, possibly, set a
precedent that would indicate that manufacturers were indeed responsible for
the data contained on their devices – thus potentially opening the floodgates
to numerous expensive claims.
Still, many people have been affected by storage devices that have failed
whilst under warranty and, yes, perhaps they should have been more vigilant and
backed their data up to another device, but there are many who would counter
such an argument. Perhaps it is just as reasonable to claim that, by failing to
cover the costs of recovering data from a device that was under warranty, a
manufacturer is failing to stand by its product and are unfairly utilising a
loophole to leave those affected out of pocket.
Now, we at Fields Data Recovery have our own opinion on this matter, but
we’d much rather hear from you; the IT technicians, the small business owners
and the company directors who’ve been affected by data loss. Having considered
the reasons why manufacturers don’t cover the costs of recovering data when the
affected device is under warranty, do you feel that this is fair? Please leave
a comment and share your thoughts.
If you’ve lost vital data and need it bac, you can get in touch with the data recovery experts here.