List of Data Recovery Risks to Avoid

All the below are items that should greatly concern you when looking for Data Recovery services. Beware, many inferior companies attempt to perform data recovery incorrectly and hope to get luckily. Do not be fooled, be informed and be sure you’re secure.

#1: Firms that promise extremely high recovery rates (99-100%). In many cases where the drive is physically damaged, it may be impossible to recover the data. A 99% success rate that only counts drives with recoverable data is more realistic.

#2: Data recovery companies with very low fees or companies that advertise a flat-rate for all recoveries. The saying "you get what you pay for" certainly applies when talking about data recovery companies. Companies with rates well below the industry averages often do not have the skills, knowledge, or experience to safely recover your data and they may be looking to make their money on evaluation fees, cancellation fees, or through other means. These companies may even tell you that the data on your media is unrecoverable because they lack the skills or equipment to recover your data. Most recoveries can be performed for $500-2500.

#3: Companies that automatically say your drive needs a clean room without first examining the drive. Clean rooms are expensive to own and operate. Media that requires a clean room recovery can be significantly more expensive than media that is recoverable without the need of a clean room.

#4: Companies that are not data recovery companies just computer repair shops should be avoided when looking for a data recovery. Smaller computer repair shops typically use off-the-shelf software as their sole means of recovering data and they do not have specialized hardware for dealing with various firmware and physical problems that may occur to your hard drive. In some cases, running these programs may cause further damage and corruption to the drive, which may make it impossible for a legitimate data recovery company to recover your data.