I am quite shocked how some people deal with clients. It seems bizarre to me* one of the owners of Disklabs* that on a daily basis* we get clients phoning us up to ask about other companies. There are a few specific companies that keep coming up time and time again. I will leave you to work out which ones they are* (check the forum under 'Problem Data Recovery Companies').

We then have 'rants' from other people that claim to run huge data recovery organisations* but upon investigation* find them to be no more than a small data recovery company claiming to have several offices and over 100 staff.

We have companies claiming to recover 98.6% of all data

We have companies that claim to be the biggest in the UK.

They are not* the biggest* they don’t recover 98.6% of all data and they don’t have over 100 staff.

What is it with some people? Why can’t more people be honest and up front with their clients?

Our philosophy is simple. An honest fee for an honest job. We are up front with our clients. No hidden prices* no sudden ‘extras’. What do we get for this* well* not much really? The other* not so honest companies are reported to Trading Standards* but nothing seems to get done. Complaints are made* but people don’t get to hear about them very often. This annoys me* because I see these people as dishonest and by that degree* don’t look after their client’s data correctly. In some occasions* they damage data to stop other data recovery companies from being able to recover it.

The data recovery market is growing year on year* not because hard drives are not so good* but because more and more people have data that they 'need' to store. At home* for example* I have 2 x laptops* 1 netbook* 4 x mobile phones* 3 x V+ (TV recording boxes)* digital cameras* 2 x XBOX 360's* 3 external hard drives. In my home* there are a total of 15 hard drives. All this data is stored on hard drives and if people need it* it has to go for recovery.

The point of the above paragraph is simply to prove that year on year* more and more data is stored. I believe that this means that the market for data recovery is growing year on year. I believe that because of this* the market can take several companies* which makes me ask ‘why do some companies lie?’ Surely there is more to do in life?

How to ensure that you are not taken in by these people:

Check up on their company.
Call up and ask if it’s a virtual office* (an office where a professional receptionist takes your details and you get a call back later – it doesn’t have any of the data recovery company’s staff there at all – it just makes them look like a bigger company)
Are they a member of the IPDRA* (www.ipdra.org – International Professional Data Recovery Association).
Check out their testimonials – are they real or fake?
Check forums to see what people really think about them.

Alternatively* call Disklabs.