Selecting a data recovery service company is perhaps one of the most stressful things a person or company can endure when all other restoration options have been attempted. It's the nature of business to highlight the positives and down-play the negatives particularly in a service oriented business. Virtually no one wants to say... "We can't do this or we can't do that." Virtually all will tell you how wonderful and better they are than the "other guy". This makes selection difficult to say the least. Here are some things to consider when selecting a data recovery service company...

Success Rates - No one will really admit that their success rate is anything less than their competitors. There are simply too many ways to manipulate the numbers to arrive at whatever the company is comfortable quoting for a success rate. While this item is enticing from a consumer standpoint, ignore it!

Cleanrooms - This one can be debated in both directions. The need may or may not be legitimate. One "school of thought" suggests that a cleanroom is not necessary when working on a hard drive that has internal physical damage. Opening such a drive in a cleanroom can simply contaminate the cleanroom. The other suggests, opening a hard drive to examine the mechanics is far more frequent than the contamination scenario. The operation of a functioning cleanroom demonstrates the companies investment in their business for research and development. A company that actually has a cleanroom can provide the "class" of the the cleanroom (100 or less is optimal) and a copy of the particulate count report used to determine the "class". If an outside company is used to certify their cleanroom, a copy of the certification should be available. Particulate counts should be checked frequently to ensure the cleanroom is maintained properly. I recommend selecting a company that has a cleanroom.

Capabilities - When questioning a service company about their capabilities consider the following;

1. Logical - Virtually all data recovery service companies should be able to recover from a logical failure with 95% or better success rate. If you are 100% sure your failure is logical it's probably safe to shop for the cheapest company around.
2. Electronic - Access to schematics and/or an electronics engineer with the ability to use an oscilloscope is almost mandatory. Oscilloscopes need to be calibrated periodically by a vendor specializing in calibrating such equipment. These types of certifications should be available for your review. In and of itself this does not indicate the company is qualified to repair drive electronics, but it's a step in the right direction.
3. Physical - Not only should the company be capable of replacing internal components, but they should be able to access tracks of a hard drive that are normally inaccessible to the user. These include, maintenance tracks and microcode. Accessing these areas of the drive require special equipment the company should be proud to describe in detail. And usually a full-time programmer is required. Not only to create custom recovery utilities, but to program the specialized equipment. These two items are nearly mandatory to support the research and development that is critical to the survival of a data recovery company.

Pricing - Minimum charges are a thing of the past. No-data, no-charge is an industry standard. Companies that still charge a minimum for stand-alone hard drives, CD/DVD's and solid state media or have hidden fees are generally "bottom-feeders", survive on such minimums, and are potentially under qualified. Getting quotes from companies that are one-price-fits-all seems unrealistic for a full service company. Certainly a price less than the cost of a replacement drive is suspect. Flat-rate prices and range pricing is not uncommon and can support the necessary R&D efforts. Ask allot of questions concerning how their pricing works and get a quote for the service in advance.

Caveat Empto - Let the buyer beware!

• Add New
• Search
• RSS

Comments (0)

Write comment

Your Contact Details:

Name:

Email: do not notifynotify Gravatar enabled

Website:

Comment:

Title:

UBBCode:         -color-aquablackbluefuchsiagraygreenlimemaroonnavyolivepurpleredsilvertealwhiteyellow -size-tinysmallmediumlargehuge

Message:

Security

Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.