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Data Recovery: Beware of the Scam!
There are many data recovery companies to choose from. Unfortunately the market is very profitable and competitive. So how do you choose the right company and avoid being scammed? Here are a few questions to ask yourself.
1. Do they promise 100% recovery? A complete recovery is rare. There will always be some data loss and data recovery professionals are careful to over promise results which they cannot guarantee. Any experienced data recovery professional knows 90-95% is the best case scenario.
2. Do they ask for money up front? Any reputable company will not ask for recovery costs up front. A successful recovery should be based on the final result and not on the attempt. Plus a "No Data, No Charge" guarantee puts the emphasis on the company to get results to get paid. It's a fair deal for both parties.
3. Do they claim to have a class 100 clean room? Clean rooms are expensive. Only established recovery companies will have the resources for a certified class 100 clean room which is essential when drives have a mechanical failure. Beware of the "mom and pop" company whose small store front claims to have such a facility in the back.
4. How long have they been in business? Most start ups have little experience and are only capable of performing the software recoveries. But why pay them $500 to run a piece of software you can buy for $100? These kinds of recoveries can be attempted by most do-it-yourself-er's. Don't pay for a service you can easily do at home.
5. So what's the diagnosis? If the "technician" cannot specify the failures of the drive that should raise a red flag. If they are vague or general about the drive problems, they probably don't know themselves and are planning on sending the drive to a professional. Take your drive back and send it to CBL Data Recovery Technologies.
There you have it. Steps to help you avoid being scammed by a data recovery company. Make the right choice.
Data Recovery: Tom's Hardware Article
Headquarters are in Canada. The company has a total of 11 other branches worldwide. Due to its relative proximity to our test lab, we chose the company's German branch in Kaiserslautern. CBL requires you to fill out a form at the start, the purpose of which is to collect patient data. We made an appointment in advance by phone. Once CBL has set up the new work order, they place an order for a hard disk that is similar to the defective model; that is, if they don't already have such a model on their premises.
The first test is relatively banal: In a clean room the drive is hooked up to a power supply to see if it will even start up. Our defective notebook hard drive failed to run at all. Because the failure demon might have affected the electronic system, CBL replaced it first.
(rest of story at Tom's Hardware)
http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/05/30/saving_your_data_after_a_head_crash/page3.html
How to choose the right company?
The key to choosing a data recovery company is to actually leave yourself time to make a choice. That means early recognition that a data recovery problem is beyond your immediate control. Be wary of claims that seem to be outside the limits of reality, because you could be vulnerable to a pitch just when your system is down and you need the help right away. Make sure you find a company that has clean room support. If they have the sterilized facilities to work directly on damaged media, then they will have the capability to do all the physical procedures necessary to recover data.
A high price is not always an indication that you're dealing with a high-end company. In fact, it has happened that intermediate-level companies will take advantage of a serious data incident to ask for and receive premium prices. A good company should also be 'operating system agnostic'. In other words, they can work on any kind of software. If they specialize in Windows, for example, it is because they bought the whole suite of Windows recovery applications and mastered them.
At CBL Data Recovery, we have done enough long-distance work to know that being within the same area code and time zone makes life easier for everyone. Even though this is a 24 x 7 business, physical proximity makes for faster logistics and better communications. The Internet may have eliminated time and distance in some business processes but in data recovery, being there is still better.
There are still many areas that fail to provide full service laboratories in the United States and Canada. Make sure that if you are shipping your media via courier that the company you are dealing with has both a clean room, as well as an actual full service laboratory. Many companies are simply single individuals with websites working out of their basements testing out software. You do not want your important business information to be in the hands of an amateur.
Again, make sure you do your research prior to sending your media anywhere. It's not worth the risk.
At CBL, we provide data recovery services for failed hard drives in laptops, desktop computers, data servers, RAID arrays, tapes and all other data storage media. Recommended by major manufacturers, CBL's hard drive recovery services are 'warranty-safe' and backed by our 'No Data, No Charge Guarantee'. We will recover the data you need or you don't pay a cent. It's that simple.