What does all of this actually mean? Why is this really important? After all if you are in the unfortunate position that you have lost data you just want it back quickly right? Well you may want to consider what the success rate of the company is, i mean how good are they at data recovery? Will they make the situation worse? Sadly there are companies out there which do not have the experience, knowledge, and equipment, their failed attempts can now either compound the recovery further, render the media unrecoverable or as in some cases we have observed maliciously and wilfully destroy the media further to stop any possible recovery attempt by another lab, yes it is shocking but this practice does happen!

Choosing the right data retrieval company is absolutely essential, if the data has any value whatsoever such as personal photographs or business data such as accounts or databases then you must select wisely.

Compare the scenario to your health, after all surely you would not take the absolute advice you discover from an Internet search then self medicate? Dangerous stuff indeed! However it happens regularly clients either try a DIY approach, a colleague or friend, to "just have a look" or select a company on a very narrow criteria such as costs alone, with the lowest figure firm winning your attention.

True, costs are extremely important, not least because of the current credit crunch the UK and wider world are going through at present, however the abiding point must surely be , can they actually do the job?

So how can you select from the plethora of options available?

Knowledge. Yes information from friends, family, colleagues, Blogs and groups will give recommendations and off course not so glowing and downright avoidance information regarding who they chose and the actual outcome of their data loss.

The usual suspects

Tell tale signs of all is not as it seems with a prospective DR firm can be they require a diagnosis fee, at first this seems very reasonable, but when they come back with "sorry your hard drive is unrecoverable" you get that awful sinking feeling you may have been duped, imagine a business model in which the company simply looks at media all day long for a modest fee, their very happy unfortunately data rarely is recovered.

Another issue is parts or spares, this is a truly legitimate area, but with a caveat, the actual cost of the parts and for what exactly? Hard drives are unique each and everyone is unique to itself this presents challenges in the sourcing of some components, we are aware that some data recovery companies are simply overcharging for parts required and can often run into hundreds of pounds when the actually part may be only 30-50 pounds, the hook point is this, We can recover your data, however we need to purchase spares, this is wholly misleading unless the company are absolutely 100% sure that the parts will recover the data, as in some instances the procedure can fail for a number of reasons, this must be outlined and explained to you so that you can make an informed decision as to proceed or not.

What data will you actually recover?

A full recoverable folder and file listing must be emailed to you before you make any final decisions, if the all important stuff is not recovered, why pay?