• Do they have specialists specifically devoted to data recovery?
  Some companies offer data recovery as supplementary to other computer support services. You should definitely avoid these since data recovery is a complex process and it requires many years of devoted experience.
  


• How do they perform an evaluation?
  Most good companies offer a free evaluation and do not have any cancellation fees. However some firms will try to make money on "unsuccessful" diagnostics attempts.
  


• Do they charge for unsuccessful data recovery attempts?
  Make sure that you won't be charged in case a firm fails to retrieve your data or else may lose your money, time and information.
  


• When will they give you a final quote?
  Upfront pricing is a good choice. You should always have the right to cancel your job if the price or other circumstances don't suit you. Don't leave a final quote for the last moment or the price might shock you.
  


• What are their prices like compared to the competitors'?
  Data recovery is a very comple complex procedure, so prepare possibly a few hundred dollars. Very high or low prices are not usually an optimal solution. Explore your local market to find the golden mean.
  


• What about an emergency service?
  If you need your data back urgently, find a company that offers
  
  
  this type of service. It may be costly but worth the expense. It is also a good idea to discuss responsibility for possible delays.
  

• Unbelievably high successful recovery rate
  No "magic machine" exist that can automatically retrieve all data from the hard disk. 15-20% of all cases are entirely unrecoverable and there is nothing anyone can do about it.
  If a company claims to have successful rate of more than 90%, they are definitely being dishonest with their customers.
  


• Class 100 Clean Rooms
  Clean rooms are only used in most difficult cases when engineers have to disassemble a broken drive in order to fix its mechanical parts. This is a really complex and expensive procedure with very low rate of success. And besides, mechanical failures happen very rarely(only 4-5% of all accidents).
  Most companies mention clean room for marketing purposes only and most likely you will pay for it from your own pocket.


• 
  Free Diagnostics
  A good company SHOULD offer free diagnostics. But sometimes this is misleading. It may still be free, but if you become unsatisfied with the price offered after evaluation and try to withdraw your order, you will be charged a so-called "cancellation fee"(that may go up to $200). Be aware of this.
  

About the Author

If you want to learn more information about data recovery in general please visit Choosing data recovery company website. There you can also ask your particular questions in data recovery forum and receive consultation from experienced specialists.

Yaroslav Shkvorets, http://datacent.com