How to Start a Data Recovery Business

If anything defines how the modern world operates, it is information technology. Really, the way the computers have taken the universe by storm and become an essential tool of our lives, it seems the history of the world can be divided into two parts – Before Computers (BC) and After Digital (AD).
Computers have changed the way we work and play. Things can be done much faster. We can communicate with others sitting in another continent. Documents can be uploaded at one location, shuttle-cocked over wires and downloaded thousands of miles away – all in the blink of an eye. Information technology is spreading like wildfire and has stepped out of the computers and moved into countless other devices that we use in daily life, from mobile phones and DVD players to video games consoles.
Most information technology products have one thing in common – they need a storage device to store digital data, regardless of how tiny or big the hardware product is. The data storage media can be removable or non-removable. The former comprises things like pen drives, memory sticks, CDs, DVDs and so on. The latter mostly comprises hard disks with huge capacities, currently running at 160 GB of data.
Mobile phones need to store hundreds of phone numbers, PDAs have to store thousands of messages and tasks, CDs and DVDs may have important files that are being kept as backup, digital cameras have to store hundreds of high-resolution pictures. The list of things that data storage devices are required to store is endless.
The problem is that digital data is volatile. It is not as durable as a piece of paper with information printed on it. The entire data stored on a computer hard disk can disappear in an instant due to a range of logical and hardware failures. The same is the case with removable media like CDs, DVDs and memory cards. The issue of data loss has become chronic with the spread of computers and digital technology.
Consequently, a whole new field of data recovery has cropped up in the last two decades that specialises in recovering data from damaged storage devices. It is currently a booming and fast growing industry and is very competitive. Still, it is not sufficient to fulfil demand. Opening a data-recovery business today is a good investment because there is no dearth of customers.
The main investment required in opening a data recovery business is the clean room. It is an enclosed space in which the air is filtered so finely and so many times that hardly any dust or other floating particles remain. Why such a facility is needed is because hard disks are very sensitive to dust and cannot be opened in an ordinary environment.
Even a micron of dust settled between the read / write head and the wildly spinning magnetic platters can cause the disk to crash. Therefore, inside the clean room, it is mandatory for workers to wear moon suites to ensure that they accidentally do not introduce any contaminants in the sterile environment. There are companies which specialise in making and installing clean rooms.
More than the physical infrastructure though – like the office building and clean room – it is the technicians who are the most important asset of a data recovery company. Everything hinges on their expertise and experienced technicians and engineers are in great demand in the industry.
Recovering data is a very delicate affair and even a small mistake can wipe out the data permanently, which is obviously a disaster for the client. There are also specialised software and hardware tools that are needed to operate the entire data recovery operation successfully. It is crucial for the data recovery team to be headed by a very qualified engineer who has hands-on experience worth years in this field.
Many data recovery companies tend to specialise in particular data storage media. Some may be good at memory cards while others may have special expertise in taking data out of damaged DVD drives. Due to the specialised nature of this work, there is a practice of outsourcing tasks out of one’s special area of expertise to other companies. Many reputed companies like Fields Data Recovery though, as a matter of principle, never allow the media to leave its four walls and do everything in-house, thus ensuring data confidentiality.
Many data recovery companies that you deal with actually have no infrastructure at all, but are only front companies. They take your media, understand the problem and hand it over to whichever company in the industry according to them offers the best chance of recovery.
Data recovery is a sunrise industry. There is intense competition in the field but the rapid growth and spread of information technology products in recent years have been phenomenal and, currently, there is enough space for every data recovery company to get an adequate share of the pie.