Top Ten Data Disasters for 2011 You Have to Read to Believe

Kroll Ontrack, Inc.,
provider of information management, data recovery, and legal
technologies products and services, announced its annual Top 10 Data
Disasters for 2011.

From human error to natural disaster, this annual list of real data loss
situations compiled by Ontrack Data Recovery engineers from more than
30 Kroll Ontrack offices around the globe, reveals data loss is often
inevitable, but not necessarily permanent.

2011 Top Ten List of Data Disasters

10. Bad image
An actor deleted her entire portfolio including her model card samples
and recent pictures by accidently selecting the wrong externally
attached USB drive using the Mac disk utility program. Kroll Ontrack was
able to recover her image entirely.

9. Virtual reality
To increase system performance, an IT administrator split the C & D
partition of his virtual server across two different systems. Running
out of space, the admin needed to rush and consolidate C & D onto
the same system. Not knowing that the same naming convention already
existed on the target system, he copied over the important data set.

8. Magnetic attraction
A laptop was set down on a desk near some rare earth magnets. The earth
magnets came into contact with the laptop and when the user went to turn
on the machine, it did not boot up all the way and there was a clicking
noise. While there was physical damage to the platters, proprietary
techniques overcame the damage and the data was recovered.

7. End of month disaster
A corporate accounting department stayed late to reconcile the books for
the month. While rejuvenating on a coffee break, a power outage
occurred. All of the computers shut down including the financial server.
Luckily the department’s computers were connected to UPS. However, the
continual brewing of their cups of java drained the UPS battery,
resulting in a crashed server.

6. Sunken business deal
Two businessmen met in a pub to discuss their future deal over a beer.
The server accidently knocked over one of the glasses she was
delivering, soaking the laptop which contained the business plans. A
paper towel was not enough to save the laptop and its important deal
files.

5. Smoking kills
A newly-hired security guard was doing his first evening security check
in a chemical ingredients warehouse. While he was informed that smoking
is forbidden, he pondered who could possibly spot him enjoying a
cigarette after company hours. After it was lit, the fire alarm sounded
and prompted the anti-fire sprinkler system. All the electronic
equipment, including 44 desktops and two servers, were flooded.

4. In the safe not on the safe
To avoid arriving late to a business meeting, an IT person opted to put a
tape drive on top of the waterproof safe instead of inside it. Within
an hour of doing so, the city was struck by a powerful earthquake and
the tape was knocked to the ground. Then, the premise was engulfed by
mud, water and sand. The tape looked unrecoverable, but Kroll Ontrack
proprietary tape recovery technology was able to recover 100 percent of
the data, which included one year of TV and web animations.

3. A little piece of history
A freelance photographer happened to be with a camera in the midst of
the recent London riots. Some rioters saw they were being filmed and
opted to smash the camera in order to destroy the potentially
incriminating evidence. The camera made its way to Kroll Ontrack where
100 percent of the data and the video footage was recovered and supplied
to the police.

2. Doggy eat dog world
A man encouraged his girlfriend to backup her photo library, which
contained thousands of high-resolution photos from her photo studio. She
diligently moved the data from her laptop to an external hard drive,
and unfortunately that became the only good copy. A friend then pulled
into the driveway and the couple went out to meet her, but not before
the hyper, happy family dog heard someone at the door and came tearing
out from underneath the table where the drive is sitting. The drive went
crashing to the floor, damaging the only good copy of this data.

1. Triple whammy
When a lightning strike caused a fire that sent a famous Caribbean
island home up in smoke, the computer servers were burned and then
doused with water by the fire squad. The media then corroded while the
building sat idle until it was safe to re-enter. In the end, the triple
whammy of a lightning strike, fire and water damage was overcome in the
Ontrack Data Recovery cleanroom.

"If your data is important or valuable, it is important to go
straight to a professional for the best chances for data recovery
success," said Jeff Pederson, manager of data recovery, Kroll Ontrack. "Not
only do we regularly recover data other companies have deemed not
recoverable, but all too often, we see individuals attempt recoveries
themselves or opt for the least expensive option, which ends up
resulting in more cost."