If you’ve ever been in a situation where you’ve lost a critical file or a bunch of important files, whether due to accidental deletion, virus infection, operating system corruption, or hard disk failure, it’s no fun.
No, it’s worse than no fun. It really SUCKS!
If you have a recent backup you can recover the files from then you’re not in too bad a situation, and you’re better off than most people. If you’re not backing up your system, I listed some backup tools here.
If, however, you do not have a backup you’ll need to make a decision about what to do next. Should you call a professional to recover the files or not?
The answer is “it depends.”
I’m sorry there’s not a more cut and dry answer to this, but it really depends on how much the file is worth to you or your business. Data recovery can be expensive, so you’ll need to do a cost-benefit analysis to determine how much you’re willing to pay to have the file recovered.
If all your customer data is on the drive and you can’t operate your business without it (or it will hamper your business significantly), then you’ll probably be willing to pay just about anything to recover the files. However, if the drive contained family photos that have sentimental value, you may not place as much monetary value on them and will probably be willing to pay less for their recovery.
Choosing a Data Recovery Service
If you decide to call on a professional data recovery firm, here are some things to consider:
- Are they local or will you have to (or will they) send your drive out of town for recovery? When analyzing data recovery firms, verify they really are local if they say they are. Some firms customize their web sites to appear they are local, but actually do the recovery somewhere else.
- Are their prices posted on their web site? If they’re not willing to post their prices, watch out.
- Will they give you an estimate of the recovery charge after their initial assessment of the drive? They should be willing to give you an estimate of what it will cost to recover your data and agree to get your permission before exceeding their estimate.
- If they can’t recover anything from your drive, will they still charge you a fee? Data recovery firms should not charge you if they can’t recover any data.
- Do they specialize in data recovery? Data recovery can be tricky. If it is done wrong, your data may be lost forever.
- How will they return the recovered data to you? Do they give you options for the media they can return (DVD, external hard drive, original drive, CD, etc)?
- Can they perform the recovery on-site? If you have sensitive data (confidential personal information, credit card numbers, etc), you may not be willing (or able) to send this information off-site.
- Can they do sophisticated hardware recovery (or coordinate on your behalf with a vendor that can) if normal recovery methods do not work? Sometimes the media has been damaged to an extent that normal recovery techniques will not work and more sophisticated methods are required. A recovery firm should be willing to work on your behalf to get an estimate for you and coordinate the recovery if you choose.
- Can they recover data from the media that is of interest to you? Sometimes its not a hard drive you’re interested in. It may be a camera, MP3 player, cell phone, thumb drive, or something else. Make sure the data recovery firm has the capability to recover files from that media.
These are some of the things to consider when searching for a data recovery firm. If you have questions on the subject, please leave me a comment or send me an email.
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