BuRR

Just been thinking lately, of maybe trying to set up offering the above service to the home user. I just wondered what sort of market is out there?

I know there are data recovery firms out there, but they usually price the home user out of the equation, so I'd like to try and drop into that niche...

....home photos, documents and the like.... also obtaining data from damaged mobile phones, etc.

....... so my question is..... do people need this? or am I barking up the wrong tree? I don't want to go jumping into something that has no future iyswim?

Thanks

S.

jpor

iTrader: (1)

I have been to instances where Hard Drives have failed in the home only to find that the data hasn't been backed up. Only to be asked by the user if the data can be gotten hold of as it's he/she College/University course work was on there, and it's badly needed to graduate with. So I'd say yes. But you'll find that unlike businesses, ordinary home computer work isn't as important as say the full financial accounts of a business, where data does matter.

richs2891

Yes potentially but it would depend on price and how much data you could get back?
I've found that most people tend to be put off by price of data recovery and suddenly that oh so important piece of work, document etc is not so important (both home users and work users).

Richard

davedipster

Better off buying Norton Ghost and making a backup to a seperate hard drive. Easy and cheap. There are some services now on the internet that backup your files, but nortons is the best bet.
I think people in general don't think about failures of devices and so won't care, and geeks will use the likes of nortons.

dipster

davedipster

Just to add, a daily backup that is automated on line for students may be a winner.
A service that needs no interaction and garantees a backup of all your documants folder may be a winner with students.
Most students have broadband access, so it should be simple.
Just a student that has lost hours of work, that needed to be in next day!

Dipster

BuRR

Thanks. I appreciate what you're all saying, but just how many people have a backup facility to prevent data loss in the event of a drive disaster?

Less than 5% of home users I reckon.

The whole point of me asking is that I intend to be accessable by home users, who cannot afford the prices that the businesses have to pay.

Quick and dirty data recovery - data ripped off the hard disk and dropped onto CD or DVDROM.

I knew my classes in reading MFT and FAT entries would pay off

Foot_Tapper

Hi Burr, pc support of 10 years here; I am not sure about the market for it IMHO.
Home computing is one of those things almost like DIY these days, about 95% will not entertain paying for professional support for someone to do it for them @ say £20 an hour.
Its obv not like plumbing, electrics etc etc etc, and not inherently dangerous or subject to regs, so people will have a go and get by.
If you do go the route and provide a data recovery service, be VERY wary of what you promise. ie ammount of data you can recover for them. always have a get out clause.
I have used some data recovery software, (there are a few about).
Read about it ( sorry sucking eggs an all that), you will usually find you only get one chance to recover the data completely, if u mess up thats it ( have found that out myself) .
But if you fancy it go for it, and good luck .

BuRR

I don't know if you're aware, but I currently have 3+ years experience in forensic computing, so I know what precautions to take.

I won't be promising anything, this would be a secondary source of income to my main day-job, and I wouldn't be releasing any data without payment

jowl

From my experience there is a definate market for it - but price would be very critical.

The only way I've ever made anyone take notice about backing up is when they've lost a whole lot of work.

Like you say, most data recovery stuff is very expensive IMO.

And no matter what you say most home users don't know how / can't be bothered to back up data.

David_Wallis

I can vouch for Burr's skills..

I reckon if the price was right and you advertised in the right places, ie not the places such as Vogon, and Ontrack then you could be on a winner.. Id certainly be interested to bear you in mind from a work point of view.

Best of luck

David

ozzy

It has to be simple and idiot proof. Yes, you could buy Ghost and a seperate disk, but just how many people know how to use it?

Use the old 'My Mum' addage. If your Mum can use it, then anyone can. Crack that and you'll be onto a winner, especially with broadband coming of age.

Stefan

BuRR

It won't be a software solution. It would be a service. Someone sends me their disk, and I recover what I can.

ozzy

Ah right, now I get you. Was thinking more on the lines of offsite backups.

Would defo be a good service for recovering photos from digital media cards as an example.

Good luck.

GaryK

Burr,

I would say it *may* be a go-er but I would think that the number of people that would actually pay would be very low and to hit as many people as possible you need to create awareness on a national level which would be costly. It might be worth offering the service say on ebay, lots of people use that as an inexpensive way of getting coverage UK wide, you could also try pay per clicks such as google ad-words but I would target businesses rather than home users because they would be more willing to pay. I remember years ago using DR firms when I worked for an accounting program software house and customers backups were done to 5 1/4" floppies and data was forever getting trashed I think storage medium is obviously alot more robust so DR is required less.

But good luck with it, certainly a very niche skill that not many people can do!

Gary

Markus

How about Home *and* small businesses? As said by others, most people shy away from data recovery companies as the costs involved are horrendous, which is how the market is created, if you *need* the data on the duff drive and you don't have backup then you'll pay silly money to get the data back.

As it's a secondary income, you won't be relying on it, so it might not matter if you're not overly busy doing it.

I mention small businesses as they will possibly be at the same level as a home user, they'll use the machines, but probably don't have an in-house IT department, and will rely on consultants to sort out things for them, and so backup probably won't be something they think about internally, so when the inevitable happens, they are screwed and have to go to the big boys and pay a large fee.