Data Recovery Do's and Don'ts

Data loss can occur in any number of ways. From fire to human error, customers and clients turn to you to for guidance. You want to provide educational information to help them avoid additional data loss and start down the road to recovery. The scenarios in the full article will outline incidents that can cause data loss plus tips to help avoid additional loss.

Physical Damage:

Physical damage to hard drives can manifest itself in many forms including clicking, grinding, spinning or other strange noises. If you suspect physical damage has occurred these tips can help reduce further damage:

• Be aware of strange noises or grinding
• Do not shake, disassemble or attempt to clean any hard drive or server that has been damaged – improper handling can make recovery operations more difficult and can lead to valuable information being lost
• Never attempt to operate any visibly damaged devices
• Turn off computer immediately – further operation may damage data beyond repair

Fire Damage:

Many people are unaware that data recovery could restore data from computers damaged in a fire. Important tips to share with customers suffering from this specific damage include:

• Do not attempt to clean fire damaged media
• Do not place in refrigerator or freezer to cool media
• Do not try to remove hard drive – ship entire computer for recovery

Physical damage no matter what the cause requires cleanroom attention.

Water Damage:

• Do not attempt to clean or dry water-logged drives or other media
• Never attempt to dry water-damaged media by opening it or exposing it to heat – such as that from a hairdryer
• Before storing or shipping wet media, place in a container that will keep it damp and protect shipping material from getting wet
• Do not attempt to operate visibly damaged devices

Perhaps the most important tip to share with your customers/clients is to never assume that data is unrecoverable, no matter what it has been through.

Non-physical Damage:

• Users may see messages such as “No OS found”, “Corrupt Volume” or may simply be missing files and folders
• Shut the computer down immediately.  The longer a damaged hard drive is left running, the more data that can be irretrievably lost
• Do not run “CHKDSK” or “VRepair”