Data Disaster Recovery

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May you never have to utter these three dreaded words: data disaster recovery.  I have spent some pretty harrowing times with clients with hard drive recovery.  There are some definite things that you don’t want to do.  Vice versa, there are things that are must-dos.  So, before you go doing anything – STOP – and read this.

Assess

First things first.  Assess how critical the said data is.  There is no reason to sweat data disaster recovery if the drive contains emails stored on a server somewhere else.  If, however, it contains all your client data and you have no backups (shame on you!), then you should proceed with extreme caution.  How long would it take you to recreate that data?  Okay, now you are slowing down and assessing more clearly.  If you answered months, well, we have a real problem on our hands.  At this point, I would say you should think very seriously about professional data recovery.  Do what you do in all your business decisions – a cost benefit analysis.  Now, I have to qualify that.  Most people completely under estimate the time it would require them to try recovering the data on their own.  They also under estimate the expertise.  Let me state this too – you can irrevocably destroy your data if you access that drive more.  Now, that isn’t always the case if it’s simply a missing system file.  But it can definitely be the case if it’s a physical problem with your drive.  If it would mean substantial business loss to lose the files, play it safe and get the professionals involved.  This is no time to bet against the house.

Understand

Okay, let’s say that these aren’t business critical files, but it would stink to lose them.  Again, are you willing to lose them?  If you answered that you could lose them and your business wouldn’t suffer irreparable harm, then let’s venture ahead.  Data disaster recovery may be averted in this case.  There are some system message that happen when a computer won’t boot.  Here are some previous posts on different situations:

• ntldr corrupt or missing
• my computer won’t start – a good support walkthrough for when your computer fails to start
• hard drive bios issues
• PC Memory Problems

If your computer’s system files are hosed, then you can definitely recover the data, unless:

• the drive is physically hosed (the dreaded clicking sound!)
• the drive controller has gone bad
• You did something to delete the files (trust me – I’ve worked with people who have deleted all their own files)

Now, let’s talk about cost.  You will pay a lot of money to have some data disaster recovery professionals recover your data.  It will cost you hundreds of dollars an hour.  And that recovery will take some time.  But, if you were like one client, who was losing close to half a million dollars for an hour of downtime, then you will gladly pay that difference!

Do the math, don’t panic, and move slowly at first!  Remember, if it’s business critical, and would cost a lot of money and time to rebuild the data – pay the pros!

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