4 Tips to Choosing a Data Recovery Company

By: Tony Roberts
Submitted: 2007-01-17 15:45:29
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To a company, the loss of integral data can spell death to daily operations and can cause serious financial repercussions. It is therefore important that a company be always on the guard against the eventuality that a company’s IT hardware may fail or be lost.

Most data crashes occur when some physical or logical error is introduced into a system. Hard disks, CD-ROMs, Tape Drives and other storage media can and will fail eventually. This could be caused by a host reasons – power outages, physical damage to media, head crashes, motor problems and the like.

Whatever the reason, you will need a means to restore all this data. This is especially true if for some reason the deleted, destroyed or corrupted data contains information that is not backed up or existing in any other location anyway.

Although many corporations have IT personnel and facilities to deal with such data failures, in extreme cases, it would be better to employ the services of a data recovery company. They are better equipped and have the expertise to handle these sorts of problems.

Here are a few tips to help any company in assessing a data recovery company to partner with.

1. Facilities – When considering a data recovery company, always consider whether they have the right equipment and facilities to deal with your data recovery needs.

Many hard disk failures due to motor head crashes or other physical malfunctions in the disk will require that the disk be opened and possibly disassembled in the data recovery company’s laboratories. Hard disks are sensitive, precision instruments and cannot be opened and exposed to our normal environment. Dust and particles in normal environment can wreak havoc on any sensitive media an will result in your media suffering more damage than warranted – further harming your chances of saving the data on the disks.

Ask around if the data recovery center has mechanical cleanrooms that are Class 100. You might want to inquire if they also possess integral equipment such as magnetometers to manually extract the bits from your media.

If they do not have these facilities, you may want to move on to another data recovery company.

2. Partnership – While most people consider data recovery companies as walk in and walk out services, it would be prudent to invest in a relationship with a data recovery center that offers long-term services to its customers.

For example, some data recovery companies will offer training programs to help a company minimize the effects and causes of common data loss problems. They will also teach one’s IT department how to handle such situations so that recovery by the data company can be expedited.

There are also companies that will offer certifications to a company’s IT department to help solidify that company’s data management credentials.

3. Know Your Needs – Not all data recovery needs are equal. Some companies specialize in optical media. Others specialize in magnetic media. While others are tops when handling tape storage.

You will first have to assess your needs before contacting a recovery company with your needs. Make sure the company you approach can sufficiently handle that situation for you.

4. Look for Expertise – It may seem awkward, but it would be best if one were to ask about the qualifications of the engineers in a data recovery company. If they can roll out a wad of certifications and experience, one would be less inclined towards anxiety whether their data is in good hands.

If you found those tips useful more information on Data Recovery can be found at "Data Recovery without heartache"

Article source: Expert Articles