Data Recovery Comparison Sites – How Can You Compare A Solution?

The data recovery sector has always been a very competitive arena with companies vying for the competitive edge and employing questionable tactics to get their websites up the ranking or even clicking on competitors adwords campaigns. But the latest reported tactics seem to take the biscuit.

Cost comparison sites are springing up all over the world and to a great extent most of these will give a fair comparison of the market given any defined set of terms.

This is of course a relatively simple thing to do given that the product or service is fixed or all variations in terms are available on the main website of the companies being compared.

All very fair and reasonable but what if the services offered will vary or the end solution will depend on the problem in the first place. Also what if the companies being compared have not even agreed to be in the comparison scheme in the first place but are (according to purported supporting data recovery companies themselves) being falsely compared using comparative information that is as loose as a gaseous cloud to say the very least.

The big question here is where does it leave the consumer who is in most cases urgently looking for the best solution to a data loss problem in the first place, surely this would be classed as a blatant attempt to mislead the consumer to the fact that they are dealing a reputable company and getting a fair price to boot.

Unfortunately this sorry situation has cropped up in the UK market where a newly formed Data recovery comparison website has suddenly appeared and is being accused by leading data recovery companies of misleading the public about exactly how independent their comparisons actually are, given they do not have true cost comparisons based on a cross section of individual cases and independently verified data.

Reputable companies are trying to distance themselves from this comparison website and placing disassociation notices on their own sites, but this doesn’t help the consumer who in today’s market have started putting trust in comparison websites in the belief that they are intrinsically acting in the consumers interests.

Without question data recovery requirements and solutions will vary from case to case and drive to drive, and each recovery will need to take into account many other deciding factors as well that without an initial evaluation simply cannot be properly assessed.

Product comparison websites are very well suited to products for example comparing the cost of one hard drive to exactly the same drive from another supplier, but when it comes to any solution based service be it data recovery or even automobile repair, until you know the root cause of the problem it will be impossible to truly compare one business against another.

Seagate Firmware Upgrade For 7200 Drives

Are Seagate to be the next big name in unreliable hard disk drives? According to data recovery professionals at the UK’s leading data recovery company, the answer may very well be, yes given the number of Seagate 7200.11 recovery cases that are being dealt with successfully!

The Seagate 7200.11 series, also branded as Maxtor DiamondMax 22 have started failing in high numbers. The failure, faintly reminiscent of the early Fujitsu problems appears to be a firmware based problem.

Even Seagate’s own discussion forums are rife with complaints about failures with these drives.
ABC data recovery fortunately are on hand in the UK to help with Seagate 7200.11 data recovery problems but advice for all owners is to make sure you back up your data asap.

You can contact ABC data recovery on 0845 2002 845 if you have a data loss problem.

Memory Stick Repair And USB Data Recovery

The floppy drive has died and the Cd is going the same way as it becomes every more easier to carry around masses of data on USB memory sticks otherwise known as flash memory sticks or pen drives.

Sony patented the term “memory stick” when they came out with a new storage device for their digital cameras and digital files. Original drives were quite small but it was still cutting edge technology, but look where we are today?

It is nothing to have 2,3 or even 4gb of data just sat on the memory stick dangling on the your key ring, but every technology has a down side. Due to there portability even though they are quite robust it is quite common to damage a memory stick even to the point of losing all your data which for many is an absolute disaster.

Fortunately for the unlucky ones (which are more than you would guess) memory stick repair is a viable option so if the worse does happen it shouldn’t be the end of the world, even if your memory stick does contain all your data.

In the worse case scenario a good data recovery company can even retrieve data from a microwaved drive or even one that has be submersed, although there are no guarantees that USB memory stick recovery will work the odds are good so don’t panic if you break your pen drive or memory stick.

5 Top Tips To Protect Your Data

In general by protecting your computers hardware software and operating system you can help with the protection of your data. Some ways to achieve this are listed below.

1) Protect electrical components by using computers in a dry, shaded, dust-free area.

2) Protect against power surges with an uninterruptible power supply (UPS)/ surge-protector.

3) Never shake or remove the covers on hard drives or tapes.

4) Never attempt any operation, like installations or repairs, with which you don’t have experience.

5) Back up important data regularly

Tips On How To Choose A Decent Data Recovery Company

When the brown stuff hits the fan which it invariably does when you have raid server go down. or a hard drive you have neglected to back up for all those years suddenly dies I can guarantee their will be mass panic and you are going to be desparate for a solution, that is someone to save your bacon.

First thing you will probably do is hop online and type in Data Recovery and you will get lots of results but let me tell you know , not all data recovery companies are all they may at first appear on the web. Some will only have limited capability and could do more harm to your drive than good as they attempt to effect a software recovery based solution that causes further damage to the drive.

Based in the UK most of our business will come from here but data recovery is a woprld wide problem so here are some useful tips to help you make a more educated choice.

First thing first though, don’t panic –  step back from the situation and trust me when I say it is well worth asking a few questions before handing over your valuable data. 

Here We Go

The company that gets your vote should have dedicated Data recovery staff that are professionally trained for the required task.

Data Recovery and file restoration should be the main focus of their day to day activities and not a task that they undertake every once in a while when they get a job in, you can indeed find that the recovery is nothing more than a shell and could even be a secondary service offered by a computer repairer or web designer for example.

If the recovery lab or company you choose are a full service provider not only will they be able to restore a hard drive but also a server as well, so it is well worth asking the question to see if they have the capability.

They should be up to date with the latest hard drive technology and Raid recovery techniques and if top tier will also conduct their own research and development.

If the company are an industry leader they will also offer a call out service as this is often a key requirement for server and raid recovery for example, ask the question.

Top tier recovery specialist companies will also have there own onsite or country based data base lab facility for use if drive stripping is required. This should be at the latest recommended certified ISO class 3 environment.

If the recovery company need to strip your drive to effect a repair you need to get the data back as quick as possible in most cases so if the company do not have their own lab you may find your drive will need to be shipped abroad, is this a viable option for you.

To sum up losing data can cripple a company or cause personal heartache, so make sure you are dealing with a reputable firm as much as you can, and ask the awkward questions.