When you experience the loss of invaluable and irreplaceable data on your computer systems, the first order of business for you is to either mitigate the loss or recover as much of the lost data as possible. While there are hundreds and dare we say thousands of data recovery companies all touting their own data recovery experts, you will still look out for the right one to meet your needs.

1. Expertise Each data recovery expert has his own forte to speak of. Some experts focus on different media or different problem areas. Ask your data recovery expert which media and problem area he does best.

Some companies are better when dealing hard disks, while some are better working with CD-ROM media. Keep in mind that each media required different expertise and different facilities. For example crashed hard disks require Class 100 cleanroom facilities.

The data recovery company you will deal with should have Class 100 clean room facilities to deal with such instruments. Class 100 facilities means that the area has only 100 airborne particles larger than .05 microns per square foot. This ensures that further damage to the drives is avoided when they are disassembled.

If they do not have these facilities, you may want to move on to another data recovery company.

It may seem awkward, but it would be best if one were to ask about the qualifications of the engineers in a data recovery company. If they can roll out a wad of certifications and experience, one would be less inclined towards anxiety whether their data is in good hands.

2. Services and Charges You should also be aware of the services they offer and the charges for such. Some companies offer more services than others services such as preventive measures installation, additional training, etc.

Some companies offer services that not only involve taking care of your problems when they are there already, but involves helping you prevent these problems from happening in the first place. As they always say, prevention is better than cure.

Also, make sure you know the charge scheme of your data recovery company. Some will charge per amount of data recovered, as in per kilobyte or per megabyte. Some will offer a comprehensive charging plan that involves the whole service.

Whatever the charging scheme, make sure you understand it fully and are amenable with it. Some companies will charge you even for estimation of media damage. You might be able to negotiate against this charge as many companies will offer this for free especially when they consider that there has been a sudden explosion of the number of those that offer these services.

3. Other Considerations Although most companies have this in their policy, it would do no harm to review their policies on the confidentiality of your data. Some companies may retain backups of your data either as archives, for your added safety, or maybe just because they do not have procedures for disposing of such data.

If your data is confidential in nature, then you may arrange a confidentiality clause in your contract or agreement.

Also keep in mind that charges for the recovery of data for physical errors and logic errors differ. Ask your data expert to help you evaluate what kind of problem you are looking at.