The Dirty Little Secret about Data Recovery Companies

Data Recovery companies

Sooner or later, everyone will meet the digital undertaker. [tweet this].

Data recovery companies are like a funeral homes. You never want to use them, but sooner or later, you will.

I was editing a large project and everything was going well, but then, the unthinkable happened. My external hard drive made a beeping sound and I knew it wasn’t good. So I did what most panicked customers would do on a Sunday afternoon, took my Hard Drive to Best Buy Geek Squad.

After getting it analyzed by Best Buy for free they said the drive was in sleep mode. In plain language, it was in a coma.

The next day, I drove to MacMedics and spoke to Dana Steibolt who tried a software recovery program to retrieve me data. He came out while I was sitting there like a patient to find out their diagnosis and said, “Chip, you’re going to have to send it to the pros.”

I didn’t know that much about data recovery, but I trusted Dana because he has seen all types of hard drive failures, and I remember in a presentation he said, “Hard Drives will Fail” and it’s true; I made a rookie mistake by not having a back-up of my data.

He gave me the name of three companies and told me a dirty little secret about them. There are not many true “clean room” data recovery companies in the US. Most companies send work out to them and mark up the price. He also shared that it’s a buyer’s market and your rate may negotiable.

Another dirty little secret I learned  is  you can negotiate with them, even when they have your data. 

Think about it. When you call a data recovery company you are frustrated and multiple dollar signs do too. Being calm is the first sign and so I called a data recovery company,  Gillware.

It was a good call and I felt fairly confident they could retrieve my data, especially since it was hardware failure and I didn’t drop or damage my drive. I received my price quote and shipped the drive the same day.

Gillware  retrieved 100% of my data and I was shipped the box back to me on a Saturday and I was able to meet my deadline.  It’s hard writing about your misfortune with data loss, but I was glad to deal with a reputable company to assist me with the process.

Have you lost data or had a crashed hard drive? How did you handle it?

Photo courtesy of Wonderferret Creative Commons