I definitely don't go snooping around people's data. I'm really just too busy to care. The two cases I highlighted originally, come from people that have no problem with me sharing their stories and they have offered my company statements of recommendation highlighting the details of those cases to use whenever and whereever we want.

We had a problem a few years ago with a company that sent us in a drive from one of their customers. These people were complete jerks too. They called all the time, hounding us about when that drive was going to be finished. Then when we had it done, and it was already paid for and ready to ship they called back wanting us to verify data. There were two large folders and they wanted to make sure the data was good in them. So we had to bring the data back up on the server, and look through it. When I'm verifying data, I'll typically just do a search for JPG files, to give me a good feel. JPG's are fairly fragile, and if they preview ok, then I'm pretty confident the data is fine. I did a search like normal, and scanned down the list. All the previews looked good, and I was just about to close it out when I saw a child in a provocative situation. Then there were many other images that were obviously extremely illegal. I immediately called my lawyer, who in turn notified the police, who then took custody of the data.

The sad part is, the idiots at the other company, who were technically my customer, did a charge back on the credit card, so I lost the money for the recovery. They were in another state, and it was their customer's hard drive that I was recovering. I stayed in contact with the police department here, and the officer handling the case was flabbergasted that the police in the state where the drive originated were just so blah about the whole case. They just told them to send it back regular mail, and they'd "look into it". Like it was no big deal. I have no idea what ever happened after that.

As Gtd4242 noted, looking a JPEGs is a good way to get a quick idea if there is widespread corruption. Like most DR pros, I neither have time nor interest in browsing through a client's data (other than to verify the quality of the recovery). From experience, I don't think a "hermetic" approach (where you never look at anything after the recovery is done) is practical. Sometimes what first appears to be a seamless recovery is anything but . . . And it is better for you to discover problems, not your client!

I think the "average" customer would understand the need for manually verifying file integrity (there are algorithms which can determine which files are good or bad).

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Waw ! What a case !

Browsing customer's files is like intrusion into a house, looking into every cupboard and drawer. I hate that.

gtd4242, I'm with you on just being too busy, etc. I probably should be more interested in opening hundreds of files, but I am not. Like many others, we use software to test files and corresponding sectors (good/corrupt , bad, etc). (Deepspar now offers DOPS which is pretty cool) Too much time and too much resources would be spent actually examining data...only files that are specified as "Most Important" are actually opened...here the client is very specific. I understand that a good header/footer+size only indicates a higher probability that a file might open...note most small files under .5KB would probably be good anyway since it would be wholey stored inside MFT so such small files don't really need testing anyway...Our clients basically KNOW which files they cannot live without, they are required to specify these in writing, and they know and WANT us to test these. I don't think ANY profitable and busy enterprise has time or interest in looking at anything else.

Side note: in the USA, CP is illegal. Any party that discovers CP on any device is required by law to report it. I understand 100% why someone would want to make sure all files open up,etc. We offer "service after the recovery" like many other companies. We do work with the client in rare cases where the desired files don't open, but it is rare.

That said, the only data recovery (not computer forensics) cases that have freaked me out have been the very stressful ones where an oil company stands to lose ALL data unless we recover their fire-damaged drives (I've only been doing this since 2003 and haven't seen as many as some here) . Those always stress me a little but I'm used to working under pressure. Nobody ever calls you because things are working great! IT's like the ER sometimes. Had a case recently where I was given two drives and told to recover whichever drive was "easier" to recover. Price was unimportant, because they were after pictures of a terminally ill family member. Quite sad.

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http://pcrecoveryllc.com