This can be a very difficult decision for a client. Many times it is the first time they have to deal with the need for data recovery services. This decision is typically complicated by the client suddenly having to get a quick education about the data recovery industries general pricing and abilities. Not all data recovery companies and data recovery technicians are the same. This can leave a client feeling vulnerable.

So how do you decide? Let’s start with some of the basics.

1. There should be no evaluation fee unless there are extenuating circumstances.
   
   
2. The company should have a No Data – No Charge policy. You should not have to pay for an unsuccessful recovery.
   
   
3. You should be the one to decide if a recovery attempt is successful or not. A list of the recovered files should be provided to you after the recovery efforts are completed. Then you can make the final decision if the results are acceptable to you after reviewing the list.
   
   
4. The company should be able to have absolutely no problem stating that ALL internal work on a hard drive is performed in a class 100 clean air environment. It is not uncommon for a company to advertise this but in reality, much of the internal hard drive work is not performed in this environment. One way to check is to ask them if you can see where they perform this kind of work. If they tell you it goes to another lab that has the equipment or you can’t see it for security reasons or whatever, chances are, they are not performing all of their internal work in the proper environment.

Now that the basics have been covered, let’s look at some of the more difficult areas.

1. What are the company's skills, abilities and success rate? This is a difficult subject to address as literally all data recovery companies feel that they are the best at recovering data. Asking what their success rate does not help much either as there is no set standard to determine a companies success rate at recovering data. They all calculate that number differently. You will have to go with your instincts whether you trust a company's abilities or not.
   
   
2. Location. Other than the time and cost for shipping, there is no real effect on the end results. Some people do prefer to try and keep their job local. They like the comfort of dropping off their job in person and actually seeing where the work will be performed.
   
   
3. Turn around time vs price. A complete recovery can take anywhere from one day to several weeks. The company should however perform all jobs as quickly as possible. The average time is usually two to five business days. There is no real reason for a company to have different prices for different levels of service unless you are going to pay to have them work on your job during non work hours. If you are not paying for that service, we feel that all other service should be the same time frame and cost. If a company tells you that you can get it done cheaper with a lower priority level of service, then the price for the lowest priority level of service is likely to be the price the job is actually worth, irregardless of how fast they get it completed. Let's say a company provides a quote for $1,500.00 and the client declines the quote. Then the company comes back and says they will do the job for $800.00 but it could take up to three weeks. If a company is so busy it takes two weeks to start a job, why would they burden themselves with having to do your job eventually at a much reduced rate? Also, if a company is actually that busy, they would typically charge top prices. That would just be good business but in reality, different prices for different priority levels of service is an attempt to charge more than a job is actually worth.
   
   
4. Price. As we have mentioned earlier, we do not believe in flat rates for most jobs so naturally we would not recommend using a company that flat rates most jobs. At some point, a client is going to need to just trust the company they are dealing with is giving them a fair price. We recommend that a client first determine what amount they would be willing to actually pay to get their data recovered before actually speaking with any company. If the dollar value you set on your data is less than a company's flat rate, you will have to go with a company that does an evaluation and then provide a quote. Most of these companies still have a minimum charge for most jobs so you should make sure the dollar value you set for your data is at least their minimum charge.