The usual feeling at the moment of losing data is always, without fail, total panic. Once the initial shock is over, the next instinct is to try to recover the data, and try to rebuild life all over again. For most home users, a data recovery company is too costly and a bit of a far cry. There have been changes from both sides in the recent times though, i.e., data recovery has become more important in the budget of a family, and recovery companies have come up with packages that are easier on the pocket. For corporate clients, they still charge high enough, but given the value of the data, the pricing of most good recovery companies would be reasonable enough. The question is, just how does one identify one such ‘good’ company? For those who are about to use DIY or software bought off-the-shelf, the same considerations would be relevant, when it comes to choosing the correct company. An attractive wrapper is hardly a standard of excellence, and it is all the more important to be careful in this case, because the small amount that you are about to spend might get entirely wasted, and then you would have to incur the double cost of recovery.
Factors Affecting Choice
Before deciding the parameters of what makes a data recovery ‘good’ enough, we need to know what the considerations are that will guide our choice. Of course, these are variable factors, and will depend on the individual circumstances of the data loss. But a few general rules only have been laid out below, which can then be applied to individual cases:
- What is the value of the data? This is the most important factor, and the first consideration. If you are trying to get back your personal mails and family photographs, no matter how dear they are, you may not want to spend a fortune on them. On the other hand, if you have just lost the company database and the customer information that would help you to go on for many years, then you have to fish out the purse.
- Is the data recoverable? If it can be rebuilt from various sources again, there is no need to create a hue and cry. But do not forget all those extra hours that will have to be paid for, and the time you will be blocking by holding up the normal business transactions, while the employees reconstruct every thing again. If it is a question of a research paper that you have created bit by bit over the past four years, maybe you ought to spend a good part of the student loan on recovering it because there is no way you can reproduce the whole thing from memory, unless you are exceptionally talented.
- There is the valuable question of business downtime for any corporate data. Please do the necessary calculations with complete honesty, without taking any sudden strokes of luck into account, and then decide whether the recovery would cost you more or the loss. Either way, there would be a waiting period, so the calculations are all the more important to get an idea of your recovery budget.
- Do you know exactly what is wrong with the machine? It will not take a very great leap of imagination to comprehend the mess you would get into if you applied a software for recovering the files when a hardware problem has caused the breakdown. In the process, you might fatally damage the data and lose what little you might have recovered.
Properties of a Good Recovery Company
Keeping the above conditions in mind, we may try to figure out a few characteristics that we would look for in a data recovery company.
- Are they well-reputed? Yes, this is the first consideration, even above the pricing. Going to a friendly quack when your only child is sick may be cost-effective, but fatal. The same applies to data recovery companies. While there are many bright young companies offering their perfectly good services, it is better not to experiment.
- Check out the credentials – of both the company and the recovery professionals. Visit them if necessary, ask around, and check the certification. You are the one who is going to pay, so you have the right to be careful.
- References are very important. A good data recovery company will have solid references from satisfied customers.
- What is the range of services offered? You never know when you may need what, so it’s better to go for those who offer a wide variety.
- A good company will also be responsive, transparent, and economical.