Calgary data recovery. We write our own recovery software.
Missing files, storage that won't open, a failed array or damaged recordings. Our Calgary lab assesses what happened, explains the options and recovers what the remaining data allows. Start with your situation below, or tell us what you need back.
Not sure where to start? Find your situation
If this just happened to you
Hard drive is clicking, grinding or beeping
Power it off now. Each restart can scratch the platters and turn a repairable fault into a lost one.
What to do with a clicking driveExternal drive not showing up
It can be a cable, the USB enclosure or the drive itself. If it clicks or smells burnt, unplug it and leave it in its case.
What to keep with an external driveRAID degraded or the rebuild failed
Don't start another rebuild. Shut it down cleanly, keep the drives in order, and call us.
What to do with an offline RAID or NASDrive detected as 0 GB or the wrong size
Electronics, firmware or hardware faults can cause this. Leave it off and keep its original parts.
Help with an undetected drive"You need to format the disk before you can use it"
Click Cancel. The files are usually still there, and formatting is what puts them at risk.
What to do with a format promptLaptop won't boot and the files are on it
Avoid resets and reinstalls. Bring the whole computer if you're unsure how to remove its storage.
What to do when the computer won't startCamera says "card error" or "cannot read card"
Cancel repair and format prompts. We check both the file system and the card itself.
What to do with a card errorI formatted my SD card by accident
Stop recording. What survives depends on the camera, format and anything written afterwards.
What to do after formatting a cardVideo file won't play or shows 0 bytes
Keep the original card as well as the clip. Missing indexes and missing video data need different approaches.
What to keep when a video won't playMy dashcam incident clip is missing
Remove the card before it records again. Missing from a folder does not mean overwritten. Overwritten footage is gone.
What to do after losing incident footageDrone footage missing after a crash
Remove the card before powering up again. Keep the original media for examination of the unfinished recording.
What to do after an interrupted recordingDeleted the wrong folder while offloading files
Stop using the drive or card. Every new file can land on top of the ones you deleted.
What to do after deleting filesWhat our clients say
Great Service - able to recover data from an SSD drive overnight.
Hard drives, RAID, SSDs, cards and video
From a clicking laptop drive to a failed server array or a single SD card, every case starts the same way: a proper diagnosis, so you know what can be recovered before you commit to anything.
Hard drive recovery
Desktop and laptop drives that click, won't spin up or are no longer detected. SATA, IDE, SCSI and SAS, with head and motor repairs done in our clean room.
More on hard drive recoveryExternal hard drives
Dropped drives, failed USB enclosures and drives that vanished from Windows or Mac, including enclosures that encrypt data on the fly. Bring the case and power adapter.
More on external drivesRAID, NAS and servers
RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50 and 60, failed rebuilds, NAS units that won't mount and server volumes. Leave the drives in their bays.
More on RAID and NASSSD and NVMe
Solid-state drives that disappeared, lock up or report the wrong capacity. Results depend on the controller, encryption and whether the data is still there.
More on SSD recoveryUSB flash drives
Snapped connectors, bent boards and drives that aren't recognised, down to reading the memory chip directly when the controller has failed.
More on flash drivesSD and memory cards
SD, microSD and CFexpress cards that were formatted, corrupted or ask to be formatted when inserted.
More on SD cardsCamera and drone video
Sony, Canon, Nikon, GoPro and DJI footage, including MP4, MOV and XAVC files that won't open or show 0 bytes.
More on video recoveryDashcam footage
Missing incident clips, lost event recordings and video that won't play. Overwritten footage can't be recovered.
More on dashcam footageDeleted and formatted files
Emptied recycle bin, wrong drive formatted, missing partitions and RAW volumes. Stop using the drive until it's here.
Help with deleted or formatted filesFour ways a drive fails
Mechanical
Failed heads, seized motors or damaged platters. Repaired in our clean room, often with matched donor parts.
Electrical
Circuit board, protection diodes or power faults from surges and wrong adapters. Swapping boards rarely works on modern drives, which store unique data on the board.
Firmware
Corrupted drive firmware stops the disk loading even when the hardware is fine. Repaired with specialised tools, never with downloaded software.
Logical
The hardware works but the files are gone or unreadable. We image the drive first and work from the copy.
A flash drive another lab called unrecoverable
What came in
A 256 GB Lexar USB drive holding about 80 GB of photos. It had already been opened by another recovery company and returned as unrecoverable.
What we found
A bent circuit board, and a memory chip that had been removed and reattached, leaving heavy flux and heat damage. Error rates were far beyond normal wear.
What we did
Read the memory chip directly, corrected errors, then re-read every section over and over, merging the best data from each pass into one clean image.
The result
The first pass returned about 2,100 photos. Persistence turned that into 79,769 full-resolution photos, with the client kept updated throughout.
Lab notes: Silicon Motion SM3280P controller · 4-part NAND · chip-off read with multi-pass ECC correction
Told your data is unrecoverable? Get a second opinionMore case files
Four steps, start to finish
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01
Tell us what happened
Call or send the form. We'll tell you what to do with the device in the meantime.
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02
Drop it off
Bring it to our office on Macleod Trail SE, or arrange shipping from anywhere in Alberta.
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03
Free evaluation
We tell you what is recoverable, what it costs and how long it should take. Nothing proceeds until you say yes.
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04
Get your files back
Recovered files are returned on new media or, with your permission, through a secure download link.
What you get, in writing
Cost, timing, and what happens if we can't get your files back. These are the same terms that go on your quote.
Has the lab published its own recovery tools, so you can check its work?
Ours has three, free to download: Sony XAVC recovery, Advanced Video Carver and WolfBox dashcam recovery, whose source code anyone can read.
Sony FX3: 184 of 194 cinema clips brought back · View the WolfBox source
Related guide: Five questions to ask any recovery lab
- Who does the work
- iCube Development (Calgary) Ltd., recovering data since 2005.
- Where
- One address, and it's our lab: #610 - 11012 Macleod Trail SE. Recovery is done here by our own staff and isn't outsourced. No drop-off depots, no appointment needed.
- Evaluation
- Free standard evaluation within 72 hours, for one device per client. Priority (24 hours) and same-day evaluations, multi-drive arrays and devices another company has opened are quoted before we start.
- Your quote
- In writing, before any recovery work. Nothing extra is done or billed without your approval.
- If we can't recover your files
- You pay nothing for the recovery, parts included. Any exception, such as a paid diagnostic for a device another company has opened, is agreed with you in writing first.
- Success rate
- We don't publish one. A percentage can't describe your device; your evaluation tells you what is actually recoverable.
- Your recovered files
- Returned on new media or, with your permission, by secure download. Our working copy is deleted seven days after completion unless you ask in writing to keep it longer.
- Privacy
- Your device and files are handled only by our own staff, who are bound by confidentiality, unless the law requires otherwise.
- Your device
- Please collect it within 30 days. Photo ID is required at pickup.
One lab, run by the same person since 2005
Matthew Kinderwater, Director of IT at iCube Development (Calgary) Ltd., has run the lab since 2005 and oversees every recovery. He has recovered or forensically acquired more than 13,500 storage devices and written court-ready reports for criminal and civil cases. Drives that need opening are opened in our ISO 5 / Class 100 clean room, not on a workbench.
People behind your recovery
You can speak with the people doing the work. Meet our team
You want your files back. Start there. Tell me what matters, what happened and what has already been tried. We will explain the problem and the cost before recovery work starts. If the tools we have do not do the job, we write our own. If the data is gone, I will tell you that too.
Evidence work follows strict chain-of-custody procedures with full audit logs, and the lab has worked alongside police services on forensic acquisitions. We're registered with Canada's Controlled Goods Program, and our lab is temperature- and humidity-controlled.
Trusted by
- Insurance and adjusters
- Criminal and civil law firms
- Police and government
- Schools and universities
- Energy and enterprise
- Homes and small business
Recognition
- Consumer Choice Award, Data RecoverySouthern Alberta, seven times: 2016, 2017 and every year 2022 to 2026
- Better Business Bureau Torch Award2014
- SNIA Data Recovery Educator, California2014
iPhone evidence you can defend in court
We built our own iOS Forensic Toolset, IPFTS, so every step is hashed, logged and checkable by either side's expert.
Logical acquisition through Apple's backup service. It doesn't recover deleted data or extract memory chips.
Digital forensics services- Verified three timesEvery file is hashed as it arrives, then checked twice more.
- Open formatStandard AFF v3 that the other side can verify with free tools.
- Honest reportingIncomplete backups are flagged, never passed off as complete.
- AI that cites its sourcesRuns in our lab, and every finding points to the exact record.
We publish our own recovery tools
We wrote these for problems off-the-shelf software couldn't handle, then released them free. They come out of the same lab that works on your recovery.
Sony XAVC video recovery
Rebuilds Sony XAVC S and XAVC HS clips from deleted or formatted SD and CFexpress cards.
Visit sonyvideorecovery.comWolfBox dashcam recovery
Recovers WolfBox HEVC footage straight from the card, even when the file system is gone.
View on GitHubAdvanced Video Carver
Recovers deleted MP4, MOV, MTS, AVI and other video from FAT, exFAT and NTFS drives, keeping original filenames and rejoining fragmented files. When file records are gone, it carves video straight from the raw data.
Learn more and downloadData recovery across Calgary and area
Drop off at our working lab in the Southcentre Executive Tower, no appointment needed, or call for instructions to ship your device from anywhere in Alberta.
iCube Development (Calgary) Ltd.Southcentre Executive Tower#610 - 11012 Macleod Trail SE
Calgary AB T2J 6A5
- Calgary NW, NE, SW, SE
- Airdrie
- Cochrane
- Chestermere
- Okotoks
- High River
- Strathmore
- Canmore and Banff
- Rocky View County
- Foothills County
- Red Deer
- Mail-in across Alberta
Common questions
Not listed here? Call (587) 387-2346 and ask a technician directly.
My hard drive is clicking. What should I do?
Turn it off. Clicking usually means the heads are failing, and every restart risks scratching the platters. Don't open it or put it in the freezer. Just bring it in.
Should I try to rebuild my failed RAID?
Not until the data is safe. A rebuild onto a weak or wrong drive can overwrite good data across the whole array. Power it down, label each drive by its bay, note the RAID level and controller if you know them, and bring every drive in. We image each one and rebuild the array from the copies.
Can you recover a formatted SD card?
Often, yes. A quick format usually leaves the recordings on the card until new ones overwrite them. Take it out of the camera and tell us which camera formatted it.
Can you recover dashcam footage that was overwritten?
Footage that has truly been recorded over is gone, but dashcams often leave fragments and older clips behind. We recover what remains and tell you honestly what we find in the evaluation.
How much does data recovery cost?
It depends on the device and what went wrong, so every case starts with a free standard evaluation and a written quote. If your files can't be recovered, you pay nothing for the recovery, parts included. The one common exception is a device another company has already opened: it needs a paid diagnostic, because their earlier work changes what can be safely assumed, and we agree that fee with you before we start.
Should I try a free recovery app first?
Never install anything onto the card or drive you're recovering from. If you want to try our free Sony, WolfBox or Advanced Video Carver tools, use them on a copy of the card, and call us if they come up empty.
Is this a working lab or just a drop-off point?
It's our working lab. Recovery is done at our Macleod Trail SE office by our own staff and isn't sent to another recovery company.
Can you promise my files will come back?
No honest lab can promise that before looking. Physical damage, overwriting and encryption can all prevent recovery. The evaluation tells you what remains, and we agree on which files matter before any work starts, so a partial result is never a surprise.
Do you keep a copy of my recovered files?
Only briefly. Our working copy is deleted seven days after the recovery is complete, unless you approve longer retention in writing. Please collect your original device within 30 days, with photo ID, and back up your recovered files as soon as you have them.
A store sent me here. Do they get paid for that?
No. We don't pay or accept referral commissions. Stores and IT departments send people to us because of the work.
Will the price change after I approve the quote?
Not without your approval. If we find something the quote didn't cover, we stop and explain it before going further.
Who will see my files?
Only our own staff, who are bound by confidentiality, unless the law requires otherwise. We don't send recovered files over the internet without your permission.
Can I bring my own drive for the recovered files?
Yes, if it's new and still factory sealed. We can't accept used or opened drives for this.
Is it cheaper to recover only some files?
It can be, depending on the failure. After the evaluation, we'll tell you if a partial recovery is an option.
How can I pay?
Visa, Mastercard and American Express with no surcharge, Interac debit, e-Transfer, business cheques, bank wire or cash. We don't accept personal cheques, PayPal or cryptocurrency.
Do you serve Airdrie, Cochrane and Okotoks?
Yes. You can drop off at our Macleod Trail SE office with no appointment, or call for packing instructions and ship it to us.
How long does recovery take?
Standard evaluations are done within 72 hours, and paid priority or same-day evaluations are available. After that, it depends on what is wrong. Many cases are solved the same day, while drives needing parts or badly damaged chips can take weeks or months of careful work. Your evaluation tells you which kind of case you have, and your quote includes the expected timeline.
Do you offer certified data erasure?
Yes. Retiring drives or devices can be wiped to NIST 800-88 standards, with a signed erasure certificate listing each device's serial number, the method used, and the technician and witness.
Can you help with insurance or legal cases?
Yes, and it's a large part of our work. Since 2005 we have handled digital evidence for insurers, adjusters and forensic engineering firms, criminal defence and civil counsel, and police services, including high-stakes criminal investigations.
- Forensic acquisition: drives, memory cards and dashcams are acquired first and analysed from the copy, with audit logs kept throughout.
- Chain of custody: every hand-off is logged, with full audit records from intake to return.
- Recognised tools: PC-3000, DeepSpar, EnCase, FTK and Belkasoft, alongside our own video recovery software.
- Court-ready reporting: written reports that explain what was recovered and how, reviewed before release and suitable for legal proceedings.
- Typical cases: collision dashcam footage, insurance claims, and civil or criminal disclosure.
Tick the insurance or legal box on the form, or call (587) 387-2346, and a senior technician will talk through scope, timelines and reporting before any work begins.
Lost files? Don't wait
The sooner a failing drive or card is looked at, the more there's to recover.