Find out WHO you are dealing with!  Who are the principles of the company?  What is the background of the key technical staff?  What is the company's history and how long have they been in business?  If you are going to trust anyone with your valuable data, don't deal with potentially unqualified companies or individuals hiding behind an anonymous web site.

Start from the outset being skeptical.  Even if the company's representative sounds convincing, it doesn't necessarily guarantee that their engineers know how to handle recoveries. Our technicians have a combined 34 years experience in data retrieval.

Don't be impressed by unsubstantiated claims of expertise.  Demand proof and expect referral lists.  Some web sites list drive manufacturers who "recommend' or "authorize" their technology.

Don't be fooled by exaggerated "success rates".  Anyone claiming a 90% or 95% success rate is not being truthful.  Data recovery is a complicated business with certain physical and logistical limitations on what can actually be achieved. 

If you have an unusual hardware or software platform - does the company actually have the facilities and expertise "in-house" to handle your problem?   If their advertising mentions it, there are still no guarantees.  Once again - ask for references!

Be aware of companies asking for diagnostic fees or any type of additional fees to recover lost data. Do they guarantee your data will be in good working condition. If you have lost databases, Quicken, QuickBooks files will these files actually work? Do they have engineers capable of repairing a file that may have been recovered with bad sectors?

In addition, anything to good to be true simply is to good to be true. Invasive recovery requiring replacement of parts require an exact match of certain parts. An example could be if your drive happens to be a WD 800BB with defective read/write heads. A data recovery company could not simply use any other drive of the same model number. Every hard drive is a limited edition to some degree. Most manufacturers have different chipsets and interacting head assemblies and firmware even with a drive of the same model number. Therefore, even the largest data recovery companies buy parts drives every day. There is an entire industry of drive vendors who find a donor or replacement drive in an expedited fashion on the behalf of the data recovery company. The cost of the example defective WD 800 may be as low as $50.00 to $80.00 on ebay but will exactually cost the data recovery 2 to 3 times of what may be found on ebay or else where.

If you find companies claiming to do data recovery and advertising because of their low rates you should examine how valuable your data is to you. Will this company perform 2 or 3 head replacements if necessary. Do they have a research and development staff? Do they have a clean room? Do they have engineers? How can they afford to do this?

Data recovery is usually a one time shot. If the read/write heads are not replaced correctly and callibrated then further damage will occur. Data recovery should only be done by proffesional engineers. Many companies claim they have been around for decades. Untrue, there are less than 10 data recovery companies in the United States that have been performing data recovery on a nationwide basis. If you choose not to send your drive to us please feel free to call and get some advice. 1 727 343 2735.

As with any growing and dynamic industry - buyer beware!

If your data is important enough to send to a data recovery service, make sure you send it to the right one!