The sensitive, personal information stored on your computer is far more than a few pictures and some spreadsheets. Even if the only thing you think you have stored on your hard drive are email addresses and other correspondence, your hard drive is a virtual Christmas Stocking full of valuable tidbits of special interest to identity thieves. You want to keep your personal information safe. In addition, since it is not only your personal information, you want to keep your friends’ sensitive information out of the hands of unknown others.
Naturally, you back your data up regularly, but what do you do in the event of a catastrophic computer crash? You cannot possibly just start from scratch to re-build the huge database of clients you stored there. It is unreasonable to imagine that you can go back to all those places with your camera and re-take those favorite photos. In cases such as these, a reliable, professional data recovery service is your only good answer. However, there are thousands of them to be found in phone directories and on the internet. How can you weed out the weeds, and find a hard drive repair and data recovery company that can really save your stuff? Here are a few commonsense guidelines.
Don’t be fooled by glitzy websites – you really can’t judge a book by its cover.
Don’t be seduced by low prices – often you get exactly what you pay for.
Check the success rate and read the rankings. Websites, which do rankings for a living, or magazines, which specialize in computers, will have some suggestions. Remember, though, big names often mean big prices.
Check out their ‘digs.’ If the company you choose is operating out of a garage and has no ‘clean room’ where repairs are done, you are asking for trouble.
Read reviews – but read them skeptically. These days, unscrupulous folks in all kinds of businesses write their own glowing reports and post them on the Internet. Look for recommendations by other reputable companies or trusted websites. Yelp can be a great resource due to the way they qualify reviewers.
Look locally. It is handy if the computer file recovery company is close by, but do not worry if the company is across the country. With today’s shipping and mailing options, your hard drive can easily be safely shipped across the continent.
Do not try to recover files from your hard drive by using do-it-yourself data recovery tools or software. Methods such as these can destroy what is left of your files. If your data can be salvaged, you need a data recovery pro to get the job done. Before you select one, call several data recovery companies and get estimates not just for cost, but also for turnaround time. Saving a few dollars can lose its glitter when the data recovery service takes eight weeks to accomplish your hard drive repair. By doing your homework, you are much more likely to be able to recover data you thought was gone for good.