My hard drive stopped working and I had to find a data recovery company. I found some things out while I was searching around and could maybe offer a few tips to others. Well, first of all, I can say that Secure Data Recovery Services had what I'm looking for and my experience with them was all right, but having said that, whatever company you pick, you should make sure that they: 1.) don't charge for the evaluation, 2.) have a guarantee of some sort that says you don't pay anything if the recovery is not successful, 3.) don't have a minimum charge that you must pay no matter what, and 4.) they don't charge you until they're completely finished. In addition, you should be wary of things like unusually low quotes (it means they'll either add more charges later on, or they're simply not experienced), and quotes that are given out without a thorough examination (I mean, how would they know how much to charge if they haven't even looked at what the problem actually is?). And all right, maybe I'm just nitpicking at this point, but still - if a company advertises 100% success rate, I'd stay away because that is obviously a lie, 100% success rate is pretty damn near impossible. Maybe it was just someone's half brained idea of a good advertisement, and even they knew it can't be true… but still, personally I'd stay away from those. So anyway, those are my two cents, I hope I helped someone out in their research. I picked Secure Data Recovery Services and thought they were ok, they have these things, but whatever you pick, make sure they have these things as well.
more