East Coast Computer Users Face Serious Data Loss from Hurricane Sandy

Pleasanton, CA, November 09, 2012 --(PR.com)-- With thousands of corporate networks and millions of personal computer users affected by Hurricane Sandy, it should come as no surprise that data loss is widespread throughout the East Coast. According to representatives of Datarecovery.com, a leader in data recovery that operates state-of-the-art laboratories across the United States and Canada, it may take a while to understand the costs of data loss in Sandy's wake.

"The blackouts in New York City and New Jersey have probably caused millions of dollars in data loss already, and that number could easily reach the billion-dollar mark when all is said and done," said Ben Carmitchel, President of Datarecovery.com.

Hundreds of major businesses and organizations have reported lost data, including the Labor Department, which said on Thursday that many workers seeking jobless benefits will have to wait for their checks due to flood-damaged computer systems.

Datarecovery.com also reported a surge of water-damaged cases this week, including a number of hard drives, RAID arrays and flash media. The company's representatives say that time can affect the chances of a successful data recovery, especially if a device is directly damaged by flooding.

"After a drive is exposed to flood water, it immediately starts corroding and the chances of a successful recovery start to drop," said Kevin Thole, lead data recovery engineer at DataRecovery.com. "We have to delicately clean each hard drive in our Class 100 clean room, which is a completely particle-free environment."

"We've had a high recovery rates with every case we've handled, but these certainly aren't easy cases."

Thole says that East Coast computer users should immediately contact a professional recovery laboratory if they need to recover files from a flood-damaged device.

"[Computer users] need to get their hard drives out of water, into a plastic bag and to one of our laboratories right away," Thole says. "The biggest problems occur when they try to dry their hard drives, which can seriously damage hard drives, flash drives and other devices. We've got the equipment and we're ready to help."

Datarecovery.com is also offering heavily discounted rates on hard drives affected by Hurricane Sandy.

"We're trying to work with clients as much as possible," said Thole. "This type of data loss could happen to anyone, which is why regular backup is absolutely important."

Datarecovery.com is a worldwide leader in data recovery services for RAID systems, hard drives, flash media and other digital storage devices. Since 1998, the company has provided data recovery for all digital devices, including fire and flood-damaged hard drives, through several locations across the United States and Canada.