2018 California wildfires. Credit: TheGhostofElizabethShue/Imgur.

“We took this step to ensure safety as a last resort, and we are committed to reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfire events,” Sumeet Singh, vice president of PG&E’s Community Wildfire Safety Program, said Wednesday, per CNN.

The intentional power outages are an unconventional but arguably reasonable response to diablo winds, which are linked with the most destructive wildfires in California history. As those winds subside on Friday, Pacific Gas & Electric intends to begin restoring power after checking its systems for damage — but for some businesses, that’s not much consolation.

How Power Outages Can Cause Server Failures

Over the last two days, Datarecovery.com has received an influx in new server recovery cases, which have failure scenarios directly linked to the intentional outages. 

Modern computer servers typically use redundant arrays (RAIDs) to protect crucial data, but they’re also designed to operate continuously. When power resumes after an outage, the servers attempt to start; when frequent brownouts or blackouts cause repetitive startups, the servers can encounter data loss.

“We’re seeing two primary issues,” said Ben Carmitchel, CEO of Datarecovery.com. “First, data corruption, which can occur when read/write operations are interrupted. We’d expect to see those following any power outage. Second, we’re seeing physical hard drive failures and controller damage, likely caused by the power inconsistencies.”

Each year, Datarecovery.com sees more data loss cases during times of inclement weather. 

“We’re used to receiving more personal hard drives and servers during the Spring, when thunderstorms cause these types of outages nationwide,” Carmitchel said. “This is the first time I can remember where we’ve seen a noticeable increase in data loss due to an intentional power outage. Then again, intentional power outages are rare, especially on the scale of the Northern California outages.”

Preparing Servers for Power Outages

A hard drive badly burnt in a house fire.

To prevent server damage and data loss, businesses should have secondary and tertiary power supplies for all crucial systems. An appropriate data backup strategy is also important.

“The entire point of disaster recovery is to plan for situations like this,” Carmitchel said. “Make a backup plan and make sure it’s appropriate to your business — if a single day of lost data will cost you $10,000, you can certainly afford to spend $5,000 to set up daily backups. Check that your backup strategy is working, and be prepared to execute it if your area is frequently threatened by natural disasters.”

Server issues can affect any business at any time, and while intentional outages are frustrating, Carmitchel says that these types of data issues are minor compared to the costs of a wildfire.

“We also receive fire-damaged cases when wildfires occur,” he noted. “Those are often recoverable, but given the choice between the two failure scenarios, we’d much rather work on servers with relatively minor issues.” 

If your data has been affected by a power outage, call 1-800-237-4200 to discuss data recovery options.

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Thousands of firefighters are working around the clock to control California’s historically large wildfires. Officials predict that the largest of the blazes — the Thomas Fire —  will burn into January and become the most destructive California wildfire ever.

Natural disasters are hardly predictable, and many people fled without their computers, tablets, and cell phones. While data loss is often a secondary concern, it’s a tremendous burden for the victims of wildfires.

Datarecovery.com is offering free data recovery services (not including shipping and parts) to personal computer users with devices affected by wildfires. Affected businesses can receive a 35 percent discount.

We have offered similar programs in the past for people affected by hurricanes and other natural disasters, and we’re hopeful that this effort will help our clients in California get back up and running.

If your hard drive, server, or other device has suffered fire, smoke, or water damage, follow these steps:

• Make sure that your computer is off and unplugged before touching any connected media. This is a vital step, since fire-damaged devices may have live electrical connections.
  

• Do not attempt to clean or repair a smoke-damaged device. Specialized equipment and expertise are necessary to clean and recover data from a hard drive or other media.

• Do not attempt to dry water-damaged hard drives. Many fire-damaged drives suffer secondary damage from water and fire retardant chemicals. Datarecovery.com has the necessary resources to clean damaged media, but all cleaning procedures need to be completed in a controlled environment.

• Call Datarecovery.com to speak to an engineer. Our experts can help determine the best course of action and advise you on how to best preserve your device for shipment.

Because the platters of hard drives are sealed off, a severely damaged device may still contain recoverable data. We use ISO 5 cleanroom technology and other specialized tools to retrieve information from damaged drives. As with all data recovery situations, time is an important factor, as media can continue to degrade after the initial disaster.

If you have been affected by the California wildfires, contact Datarecovery.com at 1-800-237-4200 to get started.

Wildfires and the brave people who fight them are a special subject to Datarecovery.com. Since 2013, we’ve proudly raised funds for the Wildland Firefighter Foundation, which supports the families of firefighters killed or injured in the line of duty. If you wish to support this charity, visit their donation page for more information.

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At Datarecovery.com, we have special methods for retrieving information from burned hard drives (and you can call us at 1.800.237.4200 to learn more), but in some cases, the damage is too severe to allow for a successful recovery. We can usually recover data if the platters of the drive are recoverable and if we can discern some key information about the hard drive.

This drive resembles a piece of toast more than a high-capacity storage device:

This is the underside, and you can see that the circuit board is completely ruined by the high temperatures. Here’s another drive from a similar server:

These drives had a pretty bad prognosis, but once again, we can still get the data in many cases — provided that we can read the platters.

When we receive a computer or server that has been damaged in a fire, we open the drive in a clean environment to inspect the platters. In severe situations, we see something like this:

Not great. The platters have a thin magnetized layer that stores all of your files. If they’re this badly damaged, data recovery is completely impossible.

In these pictures, you can see some partially damaged platters, which are still probably unrecoverable.

When the top platter appears to have partially boiled off like the one below, then you know it got hot. It’s interesting to note that the head is still dutifully parked off to the side.

Here’s one of our engineers removing a damaged hard drive from a badly damaged server.

How Do We Recover Fire Damaged Hard Drives?

Fire damaged hard drives are often difficult to recover, but not impossible. Hard drive enclosures are usually pretty good at protecting the platters — those shiny disks housed on the inside — and we’ve got the equipment to recover any hard drive that still has a complete set of platters.

Our basic process is to open the drive, clean it, and remove the platters, then transfer them to another hard drive (think of it as a brain transplant for your computer). It’s not that simple, of course; we also need to work with the firmware to make the drive readable, and in order to avoid platter contamination, we perform hours of extremely delicate repair work. For our clients, the good news is that recover rates are usually very high, provided that we get quick access to the drive(s) in question.

Most cases aren’t as severe as the pictures on this page, but time is always an important factor with fire damaged hard drives, since the drive can continue to degrade and corrode. If you have a fire damaged drive, call us at 1.800.237.4200. 

If you want more information on another type of hard drive failure, send us an email at help@datarecovery.com and we’ll write a blog about it.

Also, if you liked this post, be sure to check out our Reddit AMA.  It contains more cool pictures and detailed information from a few of our engineers and one of our customer service team members. However, it is an open forum, so please be aware that there’s some strong content including not-safe-for-work language.

The post What Does a Fire Damaged Hard Drive Look Like? appeared first on Datarecovery.com.

A fire-damaged hard drive.

When a hard drive is damaged in a fire, data recovery procedures need to begin as soon as possible. Never try to operate a fire-damaged storage device. Even if the drive seems physically intact, operation may cause permanent data loss (we’ll explain why below). 

Datarecovery.com provides reliable solutions for fire-damaged hard drives. To schedule an evaluation, submit a case online or call 1-800-237-4200 to speak with an expert.

Below, we’ll explain how we treat fire- and smoke-damaged media. We’ll also provide some basic tips for preserving your hard drive and avoiding accidental damage.

Fire Damage Data Recovery: Basic Processes

Hard drives store data on a series of platters, discs coated in a thin magnetic material. The platters are protected by a metal chassis, and even in cases of extreme heat, platter damage is unlikely to occur immediately (though sustained fires can eventually cause warping and even “boil off” the magnetic coating that stores user data).

In most cases, the hard drive’s printed circuit board (PCB) is destroyed or severely damaged. Provided that the platters are intact, however, data recovery is possible.

While data recovery engineers create a unique recovery plan for each case, the basic process for fire-damaged hard drive data recovery is as follows:

• Cleaning. As soon as the hard drive arrives at our laboratory, soot, ash, and other contaminants are removed.

• Evaluation. The hard drive’s electronics are assessed to determine whether they are salvageable. The platters are inspected for signs of warping, rotational scoring, or other non-recoverable damage.

• Physical Data Recovery. Donor parts are used to restore the drive to a functional condition. Because of the nature of modern hard drive electronics, it may be necessary to adjust/rewrite the drive’s firmware with specialized equipment. 

• Logical Data Recovery. Corruption and file damage are addressed with specialized software. 

• Verification. Engineers verify that the recovery is successful by inspecting files with hex editors or other tools. With the client’s permission, individual files may be opened to ensure that they are usable. Our engineers follow strict controls to maintain privacy and security when working with recovered data.

• Data Restoration. The data is returned to the client. After the client verifies that their files are accessible, the original fire-damaged drive is scheduled for secure destruction. 

Because certain factors have an outsized impact on success rates (such as the length and severity of the fire), we do not advertise recovery rates for fire-damaged hard drives. However, most drives are fully recoverable, and we provide an estimated chance of recovery during our evaluation.  

Avoid Data Loss After a Fire, Flood, or Other Disaster

Take these steps to optimize your chances of a successful data recovery:

• Do not attempt to operate the drive under any circumstances. Data recovery software cannot treat physical media damage (regardless of what software developers claim).

• Don’t clean the drive. Soot, ash, and other contaminants must be addressed carefully in a certified cleanroom. Home cleaning chemicals and water will cause further damage.

• If the drive is wet, don’t attempt to dry it. This can accelerate corrosion. Likewise, don’t add water to the shipping container — leave the drive in the condition that you found it.

• If shipping, package the hard drive carefully. Extreme heat weakens the internal components of a hard drive, so safe packaging is especially important. Pack the drive in an anti-static bag and about 5 inches of bubble wrap, taking care to ensure that the hard drive is firmly placed in the box and unable to move during transit.

• If dropping off your drive, choose a data recovery provider that operates laboratories at every location. Datarecovery.com does not operate “shipping offices,” and each of our locations is fully outfitted to treat fire-damaged media.

• Contact a qualified data recovery provider as soon as possible. Timing can make a difference, and most professional laboratories will automatically treat fire-damaged hard drives as priorities. Make sure that your provider has relevant experience with severely damaged storage media.

Expert Resources for Fire-Damaged Hard Drive Data Recovery

Datarecovery.com has successfully recovered data from hundreds of fire-damaged hard drives, RAID arrays, solid-state drives (SSDs), and other storage media. We support our services with a no data, no charge guarantee, which ensures that you don’t pay full cost for a failed attempt. 

Call 1-800-237-4200 to get started or set up a data recovery evaluation online.

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The deadly storms have killed more than a dozen people and destroyed homes and businesses throughout the region.

“Many businesses are struggling to get their computer systems back up and running, and these first few days are crucial. Lost computer files can make an enormous difference for some companies,” said Ben Carmitchel, President of DataRecovery.com.

Hard drives and computer devices can take additional damage in the weeks following a major natural disaster, as storm water can cause corrosion and other issues. DataRecovery.com urges computer users to take immediate action to protect their files.

“In addition to physical damage, we often see damage from electrical shocks, flooding, and fires following major natural disasters,” said Carmitchel. “Because the damage can get worse over time, we recommend getting assistance right away.”

DataRecovery.com’s engineers carefully clean damaged media in a certified Class 5 clean room, removing water, dirt, and other sources of contamination. They can then provide a detailed data recovery report, and if the computer’s owner chooses to proceed with the recovery, the process is completed within several days.

Even if computer users do not want to pay for the services, they can receive free hard drive evaluation services to limit damage. DataRecovery.com also provides free shipping for tornado victims and a sizable data recovery discount.

“We’re trying to help in any way we can,” said Carmitchel. “We can recover data from most hard drives, even when they’ve sustained serious damage. However, it’s very important to get the damaged hard disk to a reputable data recovery provider as quickly as possible.”

DataRecovery.com’s engineers carefully clean damaged media in a certified Class 5 clean room, removing water, dirt, and other sources of contamination. They can then provide a detailed data recovery report, and if the computer’s owner chooses to proceed with the recovery, the process is completed within several days.

Datarecovery.com is a worldwide leader in data recovery services. With four locations in California, Illinois, Arizona, and Toronto, the company provides a variety of services to thousands of clients each year. Visit www.datarecovery.com for more information.

Contact Information

Datarecovery.com, Inc.
Ben Carmitchel
1-602-635-2020
www.datarecovery.com

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