There are so many . . .
        How Do I Choose A Data Recovery Company?

Answer:
Data recovery is big business, and there are hundreds or even thousands of companies that claim they have the expertise to recover data from a failed drive. But how is one to find a company that's trustworthy and competent?

An inexperienced data recovery engineer can easily make matters worse. Data recovery is as much an art as it is a science, and it's worth consideration that only someone with years of experience should be entrusted with your valuable data. Few companies offer the high level of expertise required for consistent success. If you are curious about low, so-called flat-rate pricing, perhaps these are offered by business lacking deep expertise and committment to the interests of the clients they serve.

Because full service, first-tier data recovery firms such as MicroCom have seemingly high cost rates for their services, the industry appears quite lucrative to entrepreneurs seeking to gain market share by means of undercutting pricing of the existing competition. Compare this with the idea of seeking low cost medical help for your spouse or child; in conceivable cases it may be quite necessary to do this, but if another option is available and the value warrants it, seek truly qualified assistance.

• How long have you been in business?
• Do I get a live person on the phone or a recording?
• Do I recognize any of the data recovery company's past clients?
• What is the level of expertise? Can the company handle more complex cases such as hard drives that have been contaminated by fire or flood? Can the company handle operating systems such as Unix or Linux? How about the extreme complexity of a RAID array?
• Does the data recovery company have it's own cleanroom?
• Does the company have a success rate of 92% or better?
• Has the company successfully recovered data from a hard drive after another data recover firm said the data was non-recoverable?
• Does the data recovery company offer computer forensic services? This is often a pretty good indication that the level of expertise is fairly high.

• The capacity of the drive.
• The operating system (i.e. Windows 98, Windows 2000, Unix etc.)
• The situation (what happened when the drive failed)