Generally, more than 99% of data recovery companies do not charge a fee for the preliminary fact-finding stage which comprises of the initial contact, evaluation and the in-house diagnostic stage. UK Ontrack argues that the diagnostic stage is flexible as some data recovery firms treat it as a part of the evaluation process. Some companies view the diagnostic stage as a part of the recovery process.

The Evaluation Stage: The evaluation stage forms the foundation and the basis of data recovery. It tells the customer as well as the data recovery technician that data has been lost. It also points out the reason why the data has been lost i.e. the exact cause of disk damage and consequent data loss. It indicates if data recovery is possible. Thus, the evaluation process sets the stage for the actual data recovery procedure.

The Steps

Contact: The customer makes initial contact with the customer service department of the firm. The customer can either telephone or visit the firm in person. If calling, the customer is asked to fill in the fact-finding form. In other cases of personal visits, the customer is required to fill in the form and hand it in. The form seeks to gather and compile all necessary facts for the entry-level technicians.

• The type of PC being used including the type of operating system



• Type of data storage device being used



• Background of PC including LAN connections



• Background of data storage device i.e. the memory capacity, speed, and immunity level



• All behaviour and actions before the disk crash ? was the device exposed to extreme temperatures, was it thrown from a height or was it mishandled?



• Symptoms of crash



• What type of data was stored on the disk?



• Relevance of data stored



• How soon does the customer want the data recovered and in what format?

The form enables the technician to formulate an idea about the damage and recovery procedure to be used. This helps the technician in developing a full assessment of the damage.

Diagnostic Evaluation: This evaluation stage is usually conducted by level-1 technicians. Their job is to assimilate all the facts and try running the disk on another computer. The primary task of the technician is to determine the type of damage i.e. whether it is a hardware problem or a logical error. Based on this, the technician is able to make recommendations about the recovery techniques to be used. The technician is also guided by the urgency of the customer as well as the importance of the data. The technician also decides if the recovery procedure to be followed should fall into the category of emergency data recovery. This means that the technician assigns the recovery top priority and places it in front.

Data recovery companies of Vogon International also include the diagnostic stage as part of the evaluation stage. The disk is then imaged and duplicated to avoid further damage to the corrupted disk. The disk is then opened by skilled engineers and a report about the damage is made. This report throws light on extent of damage. It also makes recommendations about the importance and urgency of data recovery. The technician provides a price quote of the entire recovery process. The price quote is an estimate of expenditure which may occur during the recovery process.

It helps the customer in deciding whether to go ahead with the recovery procedure or not. The technician at this stage also indicates the techniques and process going to be used for data retrieval. Usually, customer compiles the reports and the price quote and goes to another data recovery company. It is not necessary to ask the company which performed the evaluation to do the data recovery also.

Free Evaluation: Generally, the company offers a free evaluation policy. Both the firm and customer are making up their minds about the retrieval process. They have not committed to the process. They have not signed any official contract. If the customer and the company decide to go ahead, a formal contract is signed. A copy of the document is duly given to the customer. The contract stipulates in clear terms the recovery procedure to be performed, the cost and duration of entire recovery process. The contract also states the return policy of the damaged disk. It also throws light on what would happen if the engineers recovered data less than promised amount, or if no data was recovered.