The discovery that some kind of data loss has taken place can be an incredibly difficult scenario to deal with and to commercially recover from. As it’s not an element of day to day business life which is often considered, many company owners don’t know beforehand  how much it will cost to rectify an issue when it does occur and they are needing the help of experts. Just as damaging, there’s often not the knowledge of the ongoing financial cost due to lack of business continuity until the data is recovered and normal service is resumed.

Data which can be lost

There’s a whole range of data loss which can occur and many ways in which it can happen.

Data loss can be:

  • Documents stored on individual computers or devices
  • Customer details on databases
  • Website pages
  • Company policies and strategies
  • Emails
  • Network security information; user passwords for example

Examples of how data can be lost:

  • Cybercrime
  • Accidental deletion
  • Out of date software or firmware
  • Natural disaster such as a fire

Data loss; how to find out the cost

As soon as you realise you need the services of a data recovery company, it’s important to gather certain information together so you can be given a comprehensive idea of the cost. Be precise in the problem, the scope and amount of data which has been lost and how the problem occurred – to the best of your own knowledge if you aren’t an IT expert. You’ll usually be offered a no obligation assessment of the extent of the damage and the work required to recover the data at no cost to yourself; this way you can determine how much recovering everything will actually cost and start to make arrangements to have funds in place should you decide to go ahead with the work required.

What you need to do

If the data loss is due to a corrupt hard drive, you’ll often need to send it to the recovery company so they can carry out the assessment. For cybersecurity breaches, they may well need to make an on-site visit.

It’s important to realise that data loss recovery costs will vary as every job is unique. A hacked network or a devastating fire could mean a protracted amount of highly skilled work is required and this will be reflected in the final cost.

Is data recovery guaranteed?

Whilst data recovery is now a highly specialised industry, there could be instances where the damage is so extreme that it’s impossible to recover everything. You’ll find this out after the assessment where you’ll be provided with a list of the recoverable files. At this point you will need to decide whether to take the risk of paying for a service which may not be able to give you full data recovery because of the enormity or type of loss, but remember that if the data is vital to your business operating to some level of normality during this difficult period, even some data recovery is better than none.