Recovering data, the economical way

TECHNOLOGY & YOU

"Data are extremely vulnerable. People think the warranty card they hold will take care of their computer. But remember most PC vendors will not help you recover data in case of a sabotage as after-sales service is against hardware damages," says Ranjan Sandwar, manager, sales, Steller Information Systems.

"All virus guard and data recovery software can protect your PC only till a latest virus hit the computer. And a data recovery specialist can only help you in this case," says Jayesh Boradia, proprietor, Janitor Data (Bombay) Pvt Ltd.

Data stored in a computer is said to have lost when the hard disk does not boot by itself, the directories are not listed, files are not getting executed or files and folders are missing.

The reason for loss of data is generally classified into two: logical and physical.

Logical reasons for data loss are virus attacks, deletion of files or formatting of discs. Physical data loss happens when there is a scratch on the platter, the printed circuit board is burnt, natural calamities or abusive use of the hard disk. These are critical cases where data can be recovered only after rectifying the mechanical defaults.

A data recovery firm provides specialised service to recover data from inaccessible storage medias. They first assess the damage in your computer and quote the price. Most of the cases, data are retrieved at the recovery specialists' labs.

"Data recovery pricing depends on the type of media, type of damage to the media, complexity of the problem and configuration set-up of the computer," says Sandwar.

For a normal Windows-loaded computer, data recovery charges at Steller could be around Rs 2,000-5,000 with a turnaround time of one-two days. Charges can go up for high-end servers and storage solutions.

Data recovery charges at Janitor Data depend on the capacity of hard disk as reading higher capacity hard disks takes more time.

To fully recover data from a hard disk under DOS, the company will charge you Rs 5,000 and the data will be recovered in one day. A disk under Windows 95/98, the charge will be Rs 7,500 and the duration of recovery is one day.

Says Boradia, "We claim only 98 per cent data retrieval as our experience says two-five per cent of drives are either cross-linked or fragmented, which is not at all possible to retrieve."

The company also offers a data insurance scheme where a user can register the hard disk for Rs 399 a year.

According to Pankaj Mathur, technical director, Unistal Systems, "Data can be recovered 100 per cent in cases such as invalid partition table, invalid media type error and invalid drive specification. In cases of physically damaged disks, data recovery depend on the condition of the surface of the platters in the disk. If there is no scratches on the platters, all the data can be recovered."

Charges of data recovery at Unistal depend on the type of corruption and not on the volume of data and the starting rate is Rs 1,000.

At Cybersoft Computers, recovery charges start from Rs 500. This can go up to around Rs 5,000. "Our charges depend on the amount of work, time consumed and the condition of the hard drive," says Kevin D'silva, proprietor, Cybersoft.

"In data recovery, there is no final word. A client will believe us only when the data are recovered," sums up Boradia.

Data recovery firms in Mumbai: Janitor Data - 28088750, Cybersoft Computers - 30938361, Unistal Systems - 327466591, Steller Information - 28215946, Vestronics - 26704992.