Released on: December 26, 2007, 3:47 pm

Press Release Author: Ontrack Data Recovery

Industry: Computers

Press Release Summary: Kroll Ontrack's annual celebration of the craziest recovery
requests reveals new levels of crimes committed against data

Press Release Body: Ant-infested hard drives and failing parachutes top the 2007
Data Disaster League list from Kroll Ontrack ® .

The annual league illustrates some of the strangest and wackiest things that people
put electronic storage devices through on a regular basis. From putting drives in
the washing machine to using oil to stop them from squeaking, the engineers at Kroll
Ontrack have seen it all - time and time again.

This year, the global data recovery experts have seen more damaged portable devices
than ever before and have tackled an ever-widening range of recovery challenges -
the cases cited in the league are some of the astonishing data recovery successes.

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Kroll Ontrack 2007 Top Ten List of Data Disasters and Remarkable Recoveries

10. All washed up - A woman called Kroll Ontrack engineers complaining she had
'washed all her data away'. Her USB stick had been through a cycle in her washing
machine and unsurprisingly she couldn't retrieve any data from it.

9. Doting Dad - Rushing home from work to feed his baby daughter, an
over-enthusiastic father forgot about the USB stick in his top pocket. As he lent
over the high-chair, the device fell in a dish of sticky apple puree.

8. Taking the bait - A fisherman thought that he would take his laptop along to play
a few games whilst waiting for a bite in his rowing boat. As he stood up, both he
and the laptop went overboard, taking all his data to the bottom of the lake.

7. Panicked photographer - A wedding photographer faced the potential wrath of a new
bride when he discovered he had overwritten her photos with ones from another event.
Two days before the couple returned from their honeymoon, he called Kroll Ontrack
for help. The bride was none the wiser.

6. Acid trip - A scientist spilt acid on an external hard drive during an
experiment. Thinking all the data had been burnt, he called in the experts, who were
able to successfully recover the data on the drive.

5. Business brawl - In the heat of an argument in Australia, a businessman threw a
USB stick at his partner. Containing valuable company plans, the stick ended up in
several pieces on the floor.

4. Indiscriminate inferno - A fire destroyed the majority of the contents of an
office, only leaving a few CDs. The sticking point was they had melted to the inside
of their cases - a unique job for the engineers.

3. Quest for a quiet life - A British scientist was fed up with his hard drive
squeaking, so he drilled a hole through the casing and poured oil into the
mechanics. The squeaking stopped, and so did the hard drive.

2. Pointless parachute: In an effort to test the functionality of a parachute, a
camera (acting as the cargo) was dropped from a plane. Unfortunately, the parachute
failed its test and the fragile cargo shattered into several pieces. With the help
of Kroll Ontrack, the camera's memory stick was reassembled and the video of the
parachute's demise was recovered.
And finally, the number one most remarkable data disaster of 2007.

1. Ant invasion - Discovering ants had taken up residence in his external hard
drive, a photographer in Thailand took the cover off and sprayed the interior with
insect repellent. The ants didn't make it and until Kroll Ontrack's engineers got
their hands on it, it looked like the data wasn't going to make it either.

" We're always fascinated by the extraordinary things people do to data that is
often irreplaceable," said Phil Bridge, Managing Director at Kroll Ontrack UK. "What
is even more astonishing, though, is the technology our engineers are continually
developing to recover information and memories. We can often perform a successful
recovery from what may seem to be a hopeless case - proving that you should never
give up. Our advice is that if you lose data, do not try to recover it yourself and
risk further damage. Talk to an expert," he added.

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monthly email newsletter. Your email address will not be given to any third parties.


Web Site: http://www.ontrackdatarecovery.co.uk

Contact Details: Address:
The Pavilions, 1 Weston Road
Kiln Lane
Epsom, Surrey KT17 1JG

Phone: +44 (0)1372 741 999
Email: customerservice@ontrackdatarecovery.co.uk