How Much Does Data Recovery Cost?

Almost all reputable data recovery companies will charge for individual scenarios, and that has sometimes led to confusion about the rate for professional services. To put it simply, in most cases you are not given a single flat rate. This is because the average data recovery cost comes with hidden fees. In a lot of cases, a data recovery company you contact will give you a broad-ranging quote that makes it impossible to know how much you will actually pay. Once you hand your device or PC over, you are in a weaker position, so that’s why you get a quote up front.

Different Way To Charge For Data Recovery Services
 
When you visit a quality data recovery company, you should know what to expect early on in the transaction. Transparency is important and can be based on a few factors: • Size of the drive • Problem with your device • Whether previous attempts to recover have worked In most cases, problems will fall into the following categories: Basic, Firmware or Mechanical. Basic looks at bad sectors, deleted data and data corruption. Firmware address damage or corruption to components that needs repairing. If there is a mechanical problem, that sometimes cost extra. This happens because technicians have to slowly go through every part of your computer to see where it’s going wrong and there are replacement costs. A well-regarded company describes any pricing options with its customers before starting any work.

Data recovery questions and answers
 
We get a ton of questions about the cost of data recovery services. Here are a few answers to those frequently asked questions.

How much do data recovery services cost upfront?

In all but the rarest of circumstances, you do not need to pay a fee for our services before we do any work. You will only pay after we successfully recover your missing data. Should you decide you need it, we offer prepaid shipping so that you can send us your device for an evaluation.

Will you give an estimate?
 
You do not have to walk into our data recovery services blindly. Yes, we give our customers free data recovery evaluations. We also have a risk-free data recovery evaluation for almost every technological device. Some of the components we often work with include: • RAID Arrays • Hard Drives • Servers • Systems Our evaluation includes a diagnostics report with detailed information about whether our services will be the best choice for you. The report includes a list of the recoverable files, an accurate price estimate and an estimated turnaround time for your issue. What if there is no way to recover my files? Because we have top-of-the-line technology with qualified and reputable experts, we can help you to stop losing information from almost all devices. Unfortunately, there are cases where we cannot recover the data. When that happens, we do not charge fees. We understand. We would not want to pay for services that didn’t work, either.

How much does data recovery cost?

That depends on who you use and what type of services you need. Get a quote in advance and don’t work with anyone who won’t do that for you. You want to entrust your data recovery efforts to an expert who will not just take your money.

source: securedatarecovery.com

5 Ways Small Businesses Must Protect their Data

Cyber security is a new concern for all businesses. Big hacks, like the Target, Home Depot, and Sony attacks, have only emphasized how much small businesses need to protect themselves. Large businesses have a lot of resources to do this, but small businesses often do not have the budget or knowledge to perform due diligence against cyber security attacks. Here are 5 ways a small business can protect itself from data threats.

Protecting Small Business Data: Backup
The new threat on the block is ransomware. Symantec estimates that 60% of small businesses face significant financial hardships after being attacked by ransomware. Some of these businesses even discontinue service or go out of business as a result of the attacks. Ransomware encrypts important files, like documents, pictures, and CAD files, on a PC. The local PC isn’t the only victim either. Ransomware will also attempt to reach out to other PCs on the network, especially mapped network drives. Once the ransomware finishes encrypting files and drives, the software demands money to un-encrypt the data that the business can no longer access. The ransom can be expensive.

Small business can’t afford that kind of monetary hit. However, if a system gets attacked by ransomware and the business has a quality backup, the business can simply wipe the PC and start over. Re-imaging a PC and restoring data only takes a day or two and saves the business thousands of dollars. Backing up and protecting small business data is easy. There are a lot of good, online services that automate this process for an affordable yearly fee. Likewise, it’s easy enough to setup on your own. The important thing is to keep 3 different backups for the 3 different time periods for each PC. Each backup set needs to be kept on-site, off-site but local, and not local. This ensures that data is saved in case a business goes up in flames or the offsite backup is hit by a natural or man-made disaster. Data storage is cheap today so there’s a backup is an easy choice..

Protecting Small Business Data: Switch to the Cloud
The cloud is still a scary thing for businesses. I understand why. Using a cloud infrastructure means that businesses have to hand over control of their IT systems and depend on another business to stay in business. Think of it this way, though, cloud businesses build their business on reliability, speed, and security. Microsoft’s Azure and Amazon’s S3 services are incredibly powerful. They both have over a 99% uptime guarantee in their Service Level Agreements. Both replicate data in servers throughout the country. Both backup data. Microsoft has the advantage of adding their entire Office Suite in the cloud, too. Best of all, cloud services can lower ownership expenses.

Protecting Small Business Data: Purchase, Update Quality AV
Antivirus protection is still needed in today’s environment. By now we shouldn’t have to warn anyone to install a quality antivirus program and keep it up-to-date. So many businesses still don’t follow this basic rule, though. This is something that any small business can implement in a few hours and automate.

Protecting Small Business Data: Restrict Admin Accounts
Most small businesses buy a few PCs and attach them to a small local area network. They don’t use domain services or group policies. That’s okay. It’s not always appropriate for a small business to utilize these kinds of services. It is important to make sure that employees aren’t using admin accounts on their PCs, though. Admin accounts are setup by default. Changing a user’s profile from being an admin to a standard user eliminates 90% of virus and attack-ware threats. Employees can always elevate privileges on the PC when they need to install software.

Protecting Small Business Data: Education
Nothing is more important than education. Employee education can significantly reduce the threat of cyber attacks. Even simple reminders to avoid opening links or attachments in email will significantly reduce the chances of an attack. Hold monthly education meetings or assign a “security guru” to send out weekly or monthly newsletters for employees to read and act on. These are basic steps but speaking to the last point, awareness and education is a significant part of the battle against data breach and data corruption. Please let us know if you have other questions. The needs of our customers frequently grow in one area or the other, such as the recent spike in ransomware. We might bring your concerns to the blog to help others, as well.

source: securedatarecovery.com