According to Informationweek and Computerworld, Segate has inked a deal with Staples that will bring data recovery services to all of the retail chain's 1400 stores. The deal will allow users to reclaim their lost data from any type of digital media, regardless of brand or condition. After a free evaluation, the experts will determine whether or not the data can be salvaged and what fee should be charged for its recovery.

The data recovery will be done on site unless the problem is particularly tricky — in that case the device would be sent to the Seagate lab. Turnaround times are expected to be 3-5 days for smaller devices and a week for large devices. The recovered data will be presented to the customer on a Seagate USB device, or a 6GB Seagate pocket drive depending on the amount of data recovered. In the event that the process fails, the customer will not be charged.

The Staples / Segate partnership definitely sounds like a great option for anyone who isn't in the habit of backing up their vast porn collections. However, until more pricing information is made available, it is hard to tell whether this presents a cheaper alternative to other services out there —although it had damn well better be a better option than the f'ng Geek Squad. [Informationweek and Computerworld]

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