Data recovery firm Kroll Ontrack has announced its fifth annual
data disaster league, featuring the top 10 worst data mishaps from
2008.
A
video
of the top five data disasters has also been produced by the
firm.
The annual global list consists of real data loss situations
compiled by engineers from the firm's 32 offices worldwide, who
have helped users to recover data.
"No matter how stringently you protect your data with encryption
and back-ups, there's little you can do when your laptop goes for a
swim," said Phil Bridge, managing director of Kroll Ontrack UK.
"Previous list-topping incidents include ant and cockroach
invasions, a dirty sock encasing a hard drive, and the weight of an
aeroplane driving over a laptop."
Kroll Ontrack's Data Disaster League 2008
10. Overboard - An around-the-world sailing
trip ended badly when the traveller's boat capsized on the last day
of her trip with a laptop on board. Thankfully, Ontrack Data
Recovery engineers were able to recover 100% of the data, which
documented her once-in-a-lifetime experience.
9. All cooped up - When Hurricane Katrina hit
the US in 2005, a newlywed couple caught in the hurricane thought
both their engagement and wedding photos would never be recovered.
Their fears were confirmed when a local data recovery provider
deemed the drive "corroded beyond repair".
8. Gone fishing - A lawyer on holiday thought
she could fish with her father and do some business at the same
time. Furious that she had brought a laptop into the fishing boat,
her father's friend threw the laptop bag (containing the laptop and
backup media) overboard. The fully clothed lawyer jumped in after
the laptop. She was relieved when her valuable business and tax
information was retrieved.
7. That's a wrap - An independent filmmaker was
putting the final touches to his latest Western using his MacBook
Pro when it started making odd noises and crashed. Without a backup
copy, he worried that his year of hard work would go to waste. The
film was recovered, completed and sold. It is now available
internationally on DVD.
6. Stolen goods - A laptop was stolen from a
family house, along with a purse, car keys and the family car. The
car was found the following day by the riverside, but with no sign
of the laptop or handbag. Days later, a good samaritan arrived at
the burgled home with a dripping-wet laptop bag, and the laptop
inside. His children had found it washed up on the beach. How were
they able to find the owner? The thief had stuffed the handbag into
the laptop bag before throwing it into the river.
5. Dog gone wild - A rowdy dog knocked a
portable USB drive off a coffee table, rendering it unreadable by
the family's computer. At stake were five years of family
photos.
4. Baby teeth - Kroll Ontrack received an SD
card from a camera with lots of teeth marks on it. The customer
indicated a "wild animal" had got hold of it and chewed it. The
wild animal he was referring to was his two-year-old son.
3. Swept away - A routine house cleaning went
awry when a flash drive was sucked up by a vacuum cleaner. It was
so powerful that tracks from the drive were pulled from the circuit
board and the connector was torn loose.
2. It's a jungle out there - A wildlife
research institute project came to a sudden halt when one of the
flash tracking chips from a Florida panther's collar was damaged in
the wild. The critical panther preservation data was successfully
recovered.
1. Roast laptop - A man put his laptop into the
oven, prior to going on holiday, in order to protect it from
burglars if the house was by chance broken into. His wife came home
and used the oven to cook a roast chicken before his return. The
oven cooked not only the chicken, but the laptop too. Despite this,
the man's data was recovered.