Think you have the worst data disaster story? Let’s find out! Submit your top data disaster for the chance to win an iPad2. – Ontrackdatarecovery.co.uk
Top 10 Data Disasters Stories for 2011:
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 firemen. 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.
2. Doggy eat dog world
A man encouraged his girlfriend to back up 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, but unfortunately that represented the only good copy. A friend then pulled into the driveway and the couple went out to meet her, but not before the hyperactive family dog heard someone at the door and came tearing out from underneath the table where the drive was sitting. The drive went crashing to the floor, causing much damage to the data.
3. A little piece of history
A freelance photographer happened to have his camera with him 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.
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 irrecoverable.
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.
6. Sunken business deal
Two businessmen met in a pub to discuss a future deal over a beer. The waitress 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.
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 a UPS. However, the continued brewing of their cups of Java drained the UPS battery, resulting in a crashed server.
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 fully boot up and started clicking. Physical damage was caused to the platters.
9. Virtual reality
To increase system performance, an IT administrator split the C and D partition of his virtual server across two different systems. Running out of space, the admin needed to rush and consolidate C and 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.
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.
Note: Submit your worst data disaster story by January 31, 2012. Include how the data disaster occurred, how it impacted you or your business and if you were able to recover your data (if so, how much you recovered). The winner will be selected on February 1, 2012. Join Now
