Hard Drive Data Recovery:
Choosing a Data Recovery Company
By Yaroslav Shkvorets
There are many different factors to consider
when choosing a
data recovery company.
All of them may have strong advantages in some areas but be weaker or less
efficient in others.
If this is your first time choosing a data recovery company, you will want
to learn as much information as possible regarding them. Browse their
websites, contact representatives and find the answers to the following
questions. This will help you to make an informed choice.
• Do they have specialists specifically devoted to
data recovery?
Some companies offer data recovery as supplementary to other computer
support services. You should definitely avoid these since data recovery is a
complex process and it requires many years of devoted experience.
• How do they perform an evaluation?
Most good companies offer a free evaluation and do not have any cancellation
fees. However some firms will try to make money on "unsuccessful"
diagnostics attempts.
• Do they charge for unsuccessful data recovery
attempts?
Make sure that you won't be charged in case a firm fails to retrieve your
data or else may lose your money, time and information.
• When will they give you a final quote?
Upfront pricing is a good choice. You should always have the right to cancel
your job if the price or other circumstances don't suit you. Don't leave a
final quote for the last moment or the price might shock you.
• What are their prices like compared to the
competitors'?
Data recovery is a very complex procedure, so prepare possibly a few hundred
dollars. Very high or low prices are not usually an optimal solution.
Explore your local market to find the golden mean.
• What about an emergency service?
If you need your data back urgently, find a company that offers this type of
service. It may be costly but worth the expense. It is also a good idea to
discuss responsibility for possible delays.
There is also a number of ways
data recovery companies
may try to trick customers in their
advertisements. Among them are:
• Unbelievably high successful recovery rate
No "magic machine" exist that can automatically retrieve all data from the
hard disk. 15-20% of all cases are entirely unrecoverable and there is
nothing anyone can do about it.
If a company claims to have successful rate of more than 90%, they are
definitely being dishonest with their customers.
• Class 100 Clean Rooms
Clean rooms are only used in most difficult cases when engineers have to
disassemble a broken drive in order to fix its mechanical parts. This is a
really complex and expensive procedure with very low rate of success. And
besides, mechanical failures happen very rarely (only 4-5% of all
accidents).
Most companies mention clean room for marketing purposes only and most
likely you will pay for it from your own pocket.
• Free Diagnostics
A good company SHOULD offer free diagnostics. But sometimes this is
misleading. It may still be free, but if you become unsatisfied with the
price offered after evaluation and try to withdraw your order, you will be
charged a so-called "cancellation fee" (that may go up to $200). Be aware of
this.
About the author:
If you want to learn more information about data recovery in general please
visit this website devoted to
Choosing data
recovery company. There you can also ask your particular questions in a
data recovery forum and receive consultation from experienced specialists.
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Karen Porter, The Administrative Professional Job Performance and Career Success Coach™