When a computer experiences a hard disk crash, it’s common to see people panic when they realise that they may have just lost a large amount of data that may be highly valuable and/or irreplaceable. While losing data on a personal computer is unfortunate, businesses who experience a malicious cyber attack or some other kind of disaster that crashes internal storage could potentially go belly-up from the subsequent financial damage.

Dolphin Data Lab is one of the world’s top manufactures and suppliers of advanced data recovery hardware/software that enables everyday people and businesses to rescue digital information from storage libraries that are corrupted or otherwise inaccessible via normal means. While their primary business is the design, manufacture and supply of data recovery hardware and software, they also provide training, remote support and a few other handy services to help their customers.

Dolphin’s products are used by private individuals, corporate entities and data recovery businesses in more than 140 different countries. Their product designers and engineers are constantly innovating on new data recovery solutions that enhance the recovery success rate of their customers.

With over 95% of employees coming from a computer hardware, firmware and/or software interface engineering background, the Dolphin team has plenty of talent swimming around to create and innovate on advanced data recovery products. Also, the company is very much focused around helping individuals/organisations perform their own data recovery by hiring the appropriate hardware, as well as getting adequate training + support.

Dolphin Data Lab – pricing and contract:

Dolphin’s pricing works by determining what type of problem the customer has, what kind of product they need, and how much data they need to recover with it. Data recovery can be a tricky and time-consuming process, so the purchasing process needs to be followed carefully to ensure the right solutions are selected, and Dolphin happily facilitates this.

Prices naturally vary based on product capabilities and rates of recovery success with different storage devices. For example, the highly effective DFL-SRP USB3.0 is priced at $4600 USD and is the world’s #1 data recovery equipment, boasting the maximum amount of utility across all hard drive brands. It even has the ability to recover data from 3 different hard drives simultaneously.

That is the high-end of the pricing spectrum, with many cheaper options available (albeit with lower utility and reliability). Dolphin also carries mid-tier and budget solutions that are more appropriate for smaller jobs where 100% recovery is less urgent. Products like the DFL PCIe-4X Data Recovery Express (Recharge Version) have innovative pricing structures where users only need to pay for the hours needed to fix their issue. Once a user has spent more than $4600 in hire costs then then it will permanently switch to the unlimited version.

Both of these products utilise the same software and can perform tasks like extracting lost data, repairing firmware corruption and image patient HDD. The former is a one-off payment while the later is more like an instalment plan.

Features and services:

At its core, Dolphin Data Lab is company that designs, engineers, innovates on and delivers data recovery solutions in whatever context they are needed. The firm doesn’t just design the hardware and put it out there; they actively seek to educate/instruct customers on how to expertly use the said hardware to recover their lost data. This also involves the provision of data recovery software and detailed instruction on how to use it.

With this combination of products and services, Dolphin delivers a comprehensive data recovery solution to individuals and organisations while also enhancing their data recovery capabilities for future proofing. The firm can also assist their users in sourcing smaller data recovery items and accessories at a lower cost, including donor PCB, donor HDD and donor firmware resources.

The aforementioned services combined with the provision of data recovery training courses means that Dolphin is able to fully equip anyone to become a data recovery expert. For this reason, Dolphin is also committed to assisting people in establishing and growing their own private data recovery businesses.

Dolphin Data Lab – pros & cons

Pros

• Offers 2 years’ free software upgrades and technical support, which is an extra year than their main competitors;
• 5 free remote support tickets to use each month in the first 2 years of purchase, while competitors charge for each support session;
• Competitive pricing and recharge options that provide higher investment flexibility and less risk for users;
• Offers a wide array of supporting videos and training documents for free;
• Tools, support, training, replacement parts and firmware resources all contained in the same convenient place.

Cons

• Currently do not have tools supporting SAS and SSD firmware repair;
• Most updates are on recovery, while HDD refurbishing takes longer.

Competitors

Data recovery is, understandably, a highly lucrative field and there’s no shortage of competition out there to keep the Dolphin team on their toes. Some of their key competitors are:

• PC-3000 UDMA from ACE LAB in Russia
• Deepspar in Canada
• Atola Insight from Ukraine

Summary

Dolphin Data Labs has developed a comprehensive product that enables people to perform what is essentially DIY data recovery. Rather than connect all the wires and run the software themselves, Dolphin designs the products, trains their customers in how to use them, and provides them with detailed support throughout the entire process, all while keeping it affordable/offering flexible payment options.

Dolphin is an impressive business for the simple reason it is able to be a profitable leader in the data recovery industry while also not shying away from educating on and enhancing in-house data recovery within their user’s homes and businesses.