Seagate Technology plc (NASDAQ: STX) today announced at the annual Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas, the expanded availability of the industry’s first data protection service plan, Seagate Rescue™, to include Staples in the United States and with NCIX and Canada Computer in Canada. The plan is not only available from more retailers, but now also covers hard drives and storage that may be included in a laptop or desktop computer system. Seagate Rescue is the only offering from a storage solution provider to deliver such a comprehensive data protection plan on a range of storage options from multiple brands.

The extended warranties that people have become accustomed to purchasing along with a new system cover only the hardware and not the files that have been saved to or edited on a device. This data protection plan provides a service where in the event of a file or several files being damaged, lost or destroyed, the consumer now has a path to recovery of the data that is affordable.

“Seagate has long been in the business of providing storage and security for the world’s data. We are now very pleased to continue the roll out of a data protection service plan for computing devices purchased at a number of retail channels throughout North America,” said Scott Horn, vice president of global marketing at Seagate. “This is the third in a three prong offering from Seagate. The company specializes in providing storage hardware, solutions and now services to the millions of consumers and companies that depend on us every day.”

The cost of recovering data from a damaged or corrupted drive can often reach into the thousands of dollars. The cost is the result of a process, which involves highly skilled technicians who must manually disassemble a drive and recover the data bit by bit.  Purchasing protection in advance of an incident that incurs data loss keeps costs low for consumers and provides peace of mind that their files can live beyond the life of their computer system.    

The Seagate Rescue service is available now from the aforementioned retailers. Staples launched the Seagate Rescue plan in 1,537 stores in the U.S. with the following MSRPs: laptop and desktop computers starting at $49.99 USD for a two-year plan; external drives starting at $29.99 USD for a two-year plan.  NCIX, a Canadian retailer, made the service available this quarter with the following MSRPs: $69.99 CDN two-year rescue plan for both laptop and desktop personal computers; the three-year plan for computers is $89.99 CDN. The external storage protection plan has an MSRP of $39.99 CDN for two years and $49.99 CDN for three years. Canada Computer made Seagate Rescue service available last month to their customers just in time for the holidays with the same pricing.