'While some companies use remote data backup services or had ensured that their backups were completely safe, some consumers may have been left with submerged computers and no backups,' says Adrian Briscoe, General Manager Asia Pacific, Kroll Ontrack.
To help those who are flood affected and facing the possibility of losing valued data, Kroll Ontrack advises the following:
1. Do not attempt to power up equipment damaged by water. If water has infiltrated the hard drive or electrical components, electrical power can leave the hard drive unrecoverable and be hazardous to anyone handling the hard drive.
2. Do Not Dry the Hard Drive. Whenever media is damaged by water, the first instinct to remedy the situation is to try and dry it out. However, the contaminants contained in water are often not visible to the human eye and will damage the media irrevocably. Residue left on the hard drive platters and circuit board corrosion will need to be treated by in-lab professional engineers.
3. Keep the hard disk wet until you get professional help. Although it sounds paradoxical, keeping a hard drive wet aids data recovery. Kroll Ontrack recommends placing the hard disk in a sealed container or plastic bag to prevent it drying out until professional engineers can dry the platters and other components in a sterile environment.
'Never assume that data is unrecoverable, no matter what it has been through,' says Briscoe. 'Amongst the most remarkable case histories is NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia hard drive which plunged into a lake after travelling for 39 miles through space. Kroll Ontrack engineers managed to recover 99 per cent of the information stored on the drive.'
Free Consultation for Flood Affected Customers
Kroll Ontrack is offering all those people affected by the floods a free hard drive consultation and evaluation plus a heavily discounted flat fee of $850 per hard drive for desktop, laptop, notebook and external hard drive recoveries. The usual price for this service available through the company's Ontrack Data Recovery solutions service (www.ontrackdatarecovery.com.au) can range up to $2,400 per drive.
In addition, Kroll Ontrack is offering a 20% discount on recovery of servers, Storage Area Networks (SANs), VMware and tape media.
Kroll Ontrack's data recovery cleanroom in West End, Brisbane, was very lucky and unaffected by the floods. It is the only data recovery company in Australia to offer a full suite of recovery solutions, enabling recovery anywhere, anytime from virtually any operating system, storage or media type and cause of data loss. The organisation has a shipping department and houses a spare parts inventory warehouse, further ensuring a rapid turnaround in jobs and enhanced customer care.
Kroll Ontrack has also established a special toll-free flood relief hotline for affected IT users. The number to call is 1800 782 259
For more information about Ontrack Data Recovery solutions, visit www.ontrackdatarecovery.com.au
About Kroll Ontrack Inc.
Kroll Ontrack provides technology-driven services and software to help legal, corporate and government entities as well as consumers manage, recover, search, analyse, produce and present data efficiently and cost-effectively. In addition to its award-winning suite of software, Kroll Ontrack provides data recovery, data destruction, paper and electronic discovery, document review, computer forensics, secure information services, ESI and jury consulting, and trial presentation services. Kroll Ontrack is the technology services division of Kroll Inc. <http://www.kroll.com/> , the global risk consulting company. Kroll is a subsidiary of Altegrity, an industry-leading provider of information solutions. For more information about Kroll Ontrack and its offerings please visit: www.krollontrack.com
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