The very last time in the world that you want to be evaluating data recovery services is when you’re in desperate need of them. Let’s face it. When you’re sitting there with a pancaked hard drive that contains business files that are essential to your company, you’ll believe anyone who tells you that they can get those files back for you – tomorrow. Decisions made in panic mode aren’t always the best.
That’s why the best time to find a data recovery company to work with is before you need one. In fact, identifying a reliable, honest and good data recovery service should be part of your disaster recovery plan – and yes, a disaster recovery plan should be an essential part of your IT security. Your disaster recovery plan should identify how you back up your data, where you store the backup files and how you’ll restore them in the event of a corrupt drive, a fire or any other disaster that makes it impossible for you to access your essential files. It should also identify the data recovery company you’ll contact in the event that your own data retrieval efforts fail. Choosing the right data recovery service to work on your files is an essential part of the process.
Ask around among other professionals. Most IT professionals have had to deal with data loss at one time or another in their careers. Ask professions you respect who they’d send their own most sensitive data to if they needed the services of a professional data retrieval firm.
Check out the reputations of the companies suggested online. A thorough Google search of the company’s name with +complaints will turn up any complaints and problems against the company and give you an idea of how reliable they are.
Pick up the phone and contact the companies you’ve identified. Let them know up front that you’re identifying data recovery professionals for your disaster recovery plan and ask to speak to a technician or sales rep. Determine if they have clean room facilities for opening hard drives for hard drive data recovery, and propose a few scenarios to ask how they’d handle the situation.
While your budget is important, price shouldn’t be your primary consideration when weeding out data recovery firms. Ask about prices and capabilities as a means to compare the company with others that you contact, but put more weight in the answers they give you to your possible scenarios and your other questions.
Once you’ve chosen a data recovery firm, follow their instructions for handling various data emergencies and write them into your disaster recovery plan. It’s important that everyone in your company is aware of the steps to take in a data loss emergency.
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