Interview with Dimitris Loulis from Northwind

 

1. Today we are speaking with Dimitris Loulis, data recovery specialist from Northwind Data recovery. Dimitris, can you tell us about your company?

 

Hello :) We are one of the largest Data Recovery companies in Greece, located in Thessaloniki. We are currently setting up our expansion offices in Athens too.

 

We are the only Data Recovery company in Greece who are certified WD partners and also we are the only ones with a full sized Clean RoomThe Clean Room is essential for opening Hard Drives in a clean environment, free   of dust particles.

 

2. How did you start with data recovery business? 

 

This is funny; I used to work as a freelance web designer back in 1994. I was considered the 'guru' of computers amongst friends etc and one day one of them called me and he was in panic, because he couldn't access his university diplomatic research.

 

I recovered the drive, I remember it was a Quantum maybe 2GB in capacity or so, very expensive back then. And then I said, hey, I'm good at this :)  

 

3.The capacity of hard drives is growing each year. What is the biggest challenge in data recovery for hard drives?

 

The capacity is growing and the technology is getting more complex. I think the bet that needs to be won for Data Recovery is to follow the technology that evolves every day in this business.

 

We must study hard, research and develop new methods and new ways to get the ultimate goal, to recover the data. And that needs to be done every single day.    

 

4. When was the first time you heard about HddSurgery company?

 

I do not remember when, but I have a colleague from UK talk to me about how good the quality is and I decided to give it a try. I always invest in good quality equipment which will give us the best result possible.

 

I do not like average solutions or tools that -might- work. I ordered the first set of tools, gave them a try and since then we have bought all tools and work with them every day. 

 


Northwind Data recovery Clean room    

 

5. Do you remember your first experience with HddSurgery tools?

 

Yes. I was working on a WD Sabre drive, 250GB. These are very difficult drives to recover. They don't like it when they have their heads changed. I tried the HddSurgery tool.

 

After I was finished, I kept wondering how on earth did I work without this tool in the past.

 

6. By your opinion, what are the advantages of using HddSurgery tools?

 

They are very well made. The material is nice and well designed. Each tool has a good variety of drives on which you can use it. Even if they are more expensive than the others, the quality always pays back and in the end you get revenue faster because you have more successful recoveries.

 

Of course, the manuals are awesome and the support is fantastic. Kudos for the animation videos, they are extremely helpful and very impressive.

 

All in all, I can't imagine myself working without these tools, I use them literally every day and they make some complex tasks very easy. Of course, you have to be very careful at all times.

 

7. Would you recommend HddSurgery tools to newbies in data recovery business?

 

Firstly, I would recommend newbies to practice a lot on non-important drives and not to mess with client's data. We see every day drives being tortured by people who call them selves “Data Recovery Professionals” and most of the times it is extremely difficult to recover these drives when desperate clients come to us as a last resort.

 

I have practiced on more than 700 drives before I started working on live cases. After that being said, yes, I would definitely recommend HddSurgery tools to everyone.

 

Newbies and experienced professionals. Simply put, they make life easier.

 

8. How you see the future of data recovery business? What future holds for Northwind Data recovery?

 

I can't foresee the future of Data Recovery, but I see that the need for more data storage gets bigger every day. At home, I have a storage space of around 8TB which holds music, pictures and movies.

 

Ten years ago, that would sound like a SciFi movie. But this is reality now and the future holds even more and more storage needs. As for Northwind 's future, as I said we are currently expanding our business in Athens and then in Crete.

 

We keep on investing in new tools and equipment, we have built the Clean Room and future plans involve a dedicated R&D section.

 

9. To conclude, what is your message for HddSurgery? Do you have some advice for us?

 

Yes. Keep producing tools that make the difference. Any serious Data Recovery lab knows that HddSurgery tools are the best on the market - hands down! Keep making innovations and all serious Data Recovery engineers will be loyal to you.

 

I will NEVER work without your tools anymore and I think that sums it up. 

Northwind Data Recovery is a Data Recovery company from 
Thessaloniki, Greece, that recovers data from hard disks (internal, external, SSD etc), USB Sticks, RAID arrays, flash cards and all storage devices.                                  

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