Know how to chose a data recovery specialist
The key to choosing a data recovery company
The key to choosing a data recovery company is to actually leave yourself time to make a choice. That means early recognition that a data recovery problem is beyond your immediate control. Be wary of claims that seem to be outside the limits of reality, because you could be vulnerable to a pitch just when your system is down and you need the help right away.
Data Recovery is a 24 x 7 business
Make sure you find a company that has clean room support. If they have the sterilized facilities to work directly on damaged media, then they will have the capability to do all the physical procedures necessary to recover data.
Try: The key to choosing a data recovery company is to actually leave yourself time to make a choice. That means early recognition that a data recovery problem is beyond your immediate control. Be wary of claims that seem to be outside the limits of reality, because you could be vulnerable to a pitch just when your system is down and you need the help right away.
A high price is not always an indication that you're dealing with a high-end company.In fact, it has happened that intermediate-level companies will take advantage of a serious data incident to ask for and receive premium prices. A good company should also be 'operating system agnostic'. In other words, they can work on any kind of software. If they specialize in Windows, for example, it is because they bought the whole suite of Windows recovery applications and mastered them.
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I think I know what happened
A serious loss of data is the worst time to figure out how it can happen. To protect critical business processes, managers should think about all preventing the disasters that can befall their data.
Try: First of all, the computing environment should be clean, dry, secure, dust-free and arranged in such a way that equipment cannot be jolted or damaged. Larger companies and institutions should have uninterrupted power supplies (UPS) to save data during power outages while smaller organizations can use power surge protectors.
Most businesses keep their backed-up data off premises in a safe location, but all too often they ignore the simple step of verifying that the right data is going on to good Media. Any and all data coming into the network must be scanned, and the system should be scanned regularly.
Any storage device that has been visibly damaged or exposed to heat, moisture or soot should not be used. Drives that sound "funny" should be shut down immediately to prevent complete destruction of data.
The checklist gets longer but the message is short: if you cannot verify your data is safe today, it may not be around tomorrow.
- The Ten Commandments of Data Loss Prevention 1. Thou shalt schedule regular backups. 2. Thou shalt perform regular backups. 3. Thou shalt verify that your backups are functional. 4. Thou shalt store your backups somewhere away from the office. 5. Thou shalt leave your computer in an environment free of humidity, dust and smoke. 6. Thou shalt use power surge protectors. 7. Thou shalt use anti-virus software and update it frequently to scan and screen all incoming data and emails with attachments. 8. Thou shalt handle your computer with care and protect it from mishandling. 9. Thou shalt turn off your computer if it makes any unusual noises. 10. Thou shalt dissuade both children and volunteers with good intentions, but lacking computer knowledge and skills, from using computers containing very important data and files for human error can be unkind to data.
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