abc Data Recovery Ltd recently applied to join IPDRA (International Professional Data Recovery Association) run by Simon Steggles of 1st Computer Traders Ltd now renamed DiskLabs Ltd. We encourage any visitor to mention this news item to their friends and collegues to prevent some of the Data recovery horror stories being repeated.

We trust IPDRA will encourage its  members to comply with its own stated membership rules as we do, however we have for the second year refrained from joining after realising that some members are allowed to join without conforming to basic clean room requirements and data security measures. We are also concerned that this is just another linking exercise by DiskLabs Ltd . Those members that have clean rooms claiming clean room status or Class 100 clean rooms are obviously unaware of changes in the clean room certification Internationally  and should bring their facilities upto the ISO standards of clean room certification in line with the Associations own mission statement. However we are concerned about the number of members who claim clean room status without certification.

I dentifying those labs without certification could help towards stopping the growing trend of consumers having their drives damaged by rogue operations.

There are some members of IPDRA who not only do not have an up to data clean room certificate yet we have been made aware they have been claiming we did not have a certified clean room which has given cause for this news Item.

We are all seeing the difficulties many businesses and consumers are experiencing due to recessionary pressures, and abc Data Recovery Ltd has been fortunate to have a keen pricing and excellent success rate enabling us to double turnover for the 4 the year running. It is obvious some of our competitors are struggling and many have closed in the last few months but there are a number of rogue operations taking risks with their competitors data and damaging drives because of their financial pressures.

The independent test cost is not prohibitive and is like having and MOT for a car, it also identifies where any problems are developing which cannot be seen by the naked eye.

US FED STD 209E Class1, Class 10, Class 100 etc,  was officially cancelled by the General Services Administration of the US Department of Commerce in November 29, 2001, Any clean rooms claiming class 100 should be able to produce their annual clean room certificate which would show their ISO rating.

Identifying those that claim "class 100 / class 10) clean room status has shown that many  data recovery operations in the UK and Internationally  cannot show ISO certification and yet claim class 100 status without any proof,  most either have lapsed their annual re certification or more worryingly have never been tested so should not be claiming to have a clean room for the purposes of hard drive repair.

We look forward to seeing other labs bringing their standards upto to modern specifications especially after the announcement of the new 5TB drives.

After identifying the need for improved standards and success rates for hard drive  platter and HDA (Head Stack Assembly) swapping way back in 2005, we hope the International Professional Data Recovery Association will address the problem of a few of the members claiming class 100 clean room status without any form of proof. 

The  Data Recovery Industry unfortunately does have a number of rogue operations who claim clean room status for the purposes of attracting data recovery work but in reality they have no such facility and we are seeing a lot of contaminated and unnecessarily damaged drives that have been to some of these operations previously.

Many have not had their annual testing done in the last 5 years, if they had they would be able to show their ISO Certification certificate to ISO BSEN 14644 class  here is abc Data Recoveries certificate.

You can read more about our highly productive and successful data recovery facility here.

The ISO system replaces the old Fed209e scale - most un certified labs claim class 100 status without showing an annual pass certificate which would show as an ISO-5 pass, 

abc Data Recovery easily passed ISO-3 for the second year running with a score of just 11 particles of 0.3microns and below per cubic meter, the pass score  for ISO-3 (equivelent to fed209e class 1) is 102 or below. The fewer particles the less chance of contamination and this is 1000 times cleaner than IS0-5 (class 100) rating.

The new scale and higher standards of clean air were introduced Internationally in 1999 and administered in the UK by the BSI (British Standards Institute) and is independantly validated by clean room testing organisations like Monmouth Scientific  This has meant the most successful independant labs in the world can compete with global leaders like  OnTrack . 

Abc have advised and supported felllow data recovery companies and resellers of the importance and how to achieve this standard cost effectively. A strict regime of regular maintenance and annual testing ensures this standard is kept up at all times, reassuring the consumer they are dealing with a company who cares as much about the success of a hard drive rebuild as the client does.

After all a "no recovery no fee"  service at low cost to the consumer can only work if the the highest possible success rates and technician productivity is achieved, otherwise the lab has to charge those recoveries that are successful more to cover the costs incurred on rebuilding drives unsucessfully.. 

The ISO BSEN 14644  scale was broadly adopted in 2004 and replaced fed209e as the standard measument both in the US and Internationally.

abc Data Recovery Ltd has based its lab and facilities on the best International leaders and are the first in the UK to be able to prove their annual testing has been carried out by giving online access to their certificate. Always ask the data recovery company who opens your drive for their certificate.

Clean rooms are used in the manufacture and repair of Hard disk Drives and "clean air" filtration is not sufficient.  Such high standards are designed to meet the continuing development of platter storage density and now drives have passed 250GB and head towards 6TB is increasingly a factor in improving success rates hour by hour year in year out.

ISO-3 replaces class 1 the highest standard of the previous scale.

IS0-4 replaces class 10  - the minimum required for drives of 250GB to 2TB

IS0-5 replaces class 100 - if the lab you use cannot show  their annual certifcation how can they claim to be class 100 ?

ISO-2  surpasses fed 209e class 1 - abc Data Recovery Ltd have already designed their clean room facility to be able to pass ISO-2  ready for increasing hard drives capacities as they progress beyond 2TB. Indeed we nearly passed ISO-2 in 2009 and can with slight improvements

The testing of a clean room is a simple and relatively inexpensive operation conducted independently. The test equipment itself is certified annually. This method of policing standards has replaced the current flawed system of self certifcation which has lead to a proliferation of Data Recovery companies claiming class 100 or class 10 clean room status without actually being able to prove it.

Some Data Recovery Labs have not been able to achieve certifcation because their clean rooms do not perform to the required standard. Often they quote the class 100 rating without actually knowing for sure. Some do not have even  basic pre-clean air filtration for their laminar flow cabinets which stand in contaminated air with their filter performance and success rates being impaired every minute it is in use, when switched off the cabinet becomes contaminated and has to be serviced and decontaminated prior to next use.

Laminar Flow cabinets not kept in a clean room have their ability to perform reliably negated within days especially during summer months if they are not situated in a sufficiently pre filtered clean room environment.

Abc's laminar flow cabinet is situated inside the ISO-3 certified clean room for maximum benefit. 

Because the system of certification is volountary only those labs committed to the high standards needed should be used. Most consumers and businesses rely on accurate information when choosing a data recovery company or reseller of data recovery services and abc Data Recovery Ltd and its partners all work to the highest standards and success rates in the industry.

If a reseller or lab cannot show their clean room certificate can you really afford to take further risk with your data?.

During this recessionary cycle abc Data Recovery have witnessed an increasing number of  damaged, contaminated and "abused" and even malitiously damaged platters and contamination which can only be caused by an inefficient claean room, yet some of the drives have been recovered once de contaminated.

Many online resellers  / technicians who perform easy software recovery or attempt PCB swaps should send any seized or suspected HSA damaged drives to a suitably equipped lab but often do not because of the loss of a chance of their fees.

To open a hard disk drive in open air will result in  contaminated platter swaps or HSA (head stack assembly) and substantially reduce the chance of a successful repair but more worryingly increase the chance of sticktion or further head landings and therefor data damage and additional costs incurred to decontaminate and start the repair procedure all over again..

We now refer all clients who have experienced this problem to trading standards .

We naturally reccommend anyone who has been advised their drive needs a repair or rebuild to carefully consider where they are sending their hard disk drive or Server RAID array -  the implications to the chances of a complete data recovery could be dissasterous.

abc Data Recovery Ltd has been able to grow signifcantly thanks to its committment to high standards and technical expertise .

Our high capacity and efficiency through investment has enabled our Lab to achieve  European and International benchmarks for cleanroom performance and the highest success rates. abc Data Recovery Ltd has based its business model for discounted data recovery  on the latest Japanese and International high capacity Data Recovery Systems.

This has enabled us to bring the average cost of data recovery down and increase the uptake conversion rates of our enquiries compared to similar sized and internationally well known data recovery businesses.

We do not claim to be the cheapest, some claim cheap prices but then ad a mark up to parts. We are probably  the most cost effective when it comes to hard drive rebuilds and safe systems of low priced data recovery of RAID servers and USB memory sticks / SD  / photocard and mobile phones.

There is a need for the UK Data Recovery Industry to identify those "labs" or workshops that are putting their clients data at further risk by not knowing to what standard their clean air environment is performing and encouraging them to bring their labs upto international standards. We hope this will be supported by IPDRA whose membership charter and association clearly indicates the requirement of  the following minimum standards :-

·  Use an ‘in-date’ Clean Facility to ISO BSEN 14644

·  Have a Secure facility in which they operate

  -  abc Data Recovery Ltd is currently  IS0-3 certified

   -abc Data Recovery Ltd operate from secure premises with 24 hour manned guarded access to the lab for emergency assistance.

At IS0-3 abc Data Recovery Ltd are one of the few UK registered data recovery companies who are able to show this standard since first passing in 2008,  we call on all data recovery resellers and labs and IPDRA members to abide by the membership requirement and bring their facilities up to International Standards to maintain the the credence of IPDRA owned by 1st computer Traders Ltd (and Renamed DiskLabs Ltd on 19/12/2008 ).

Abc Data Recovery Ltd have developed our own specialist tools in addition to sourcing the best Internationally available equipment; we have tools made in Sheffield from stainless steel to our own designs. These help with platter swapping, head stack postioning and motor & spindle repair. Abc Data Recovery Ltd have been building a successful operation, performing profitably and investing continually .

If our experience is anything to go by, the ability of any technician to be confident in their facilities will result in improved success rates for the industry as a whole, improving expert staff utilisation, which translates to increased profitability and all whilst keeping average invoice value down for the consumer.

Abc Data Recovery Ltd completed 3000 recoveries in the period Jan 2008- Dec 2008. This is already on target to be doubled in 2009 with more consumers finding our IT Support Partners and resellers through and main Data Recovery website  or through online marketing and discount Data Recovery for NUS Members. 

Andy Butler (Director)  abc Data Recovery Ltd May 2009 writing about clean room certification required by IPDRA but seldom checked. 

  abc Data Recovery Ltd  Security House Windsor Street Sheffield serving data recovery companies and IT Support services, businesses and home users throughout the UK and worldwide. Class leading facilities and success rates .

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