The pattern is remarkably consistent across every Philadelphia studio we see, from Manayunk to Rittenhouse Square.  From Old City to Center City to even University City.  Work lives on one fast external drive that travels — studio to home, home to location, into a bag, onto a train. Files are enormous, so there is never quite enough room to keep a second copy of everything. Finished projects get archived to that same drive between jobs. And the backup, when it exists, is a second drive bought at the same time and kept on the same desk.

That last detail matters more than people realize. Drives purchased together tend to fail at around the same time when they are consistently in use, and a backup that shares the desk, the power supply and the bag shares every risk the original has. When both fail, bring both — two failing drives increases the odds of a successful recovery.

Large media also fails differently. A single enormous file can come back structurally intact or subtly corrupted, and which one it is matters enormously before you hand it to a client. We verify what we recovered with you, in person, before you pay — and we tell you plainly if something came back damaged rather than letting you find out in a review, and in most cases we can separate those files so you know exactly what you are paying for.  This is why it’s so  important that you understand  how to choose a data recovery company – because you may only get one chance.