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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