August 17
You may know them as Andrea, Barry, Chantal, Dean, Erin or Flossie. No, they’re not the finalists on the popular television programs “So You Think You Can Dance” or “American Idol”. They are the tropical storms that have or are threatening to make land fall during the 2007 Hurricane Season. And when they arrive, they usually are accompanied by damaging winds, rain and often flood waters.
So what can the average person or small or medium sized business owner do to reduce the risk of data loss when these ‘weather disturbances” arrive? Well, before packing up and evacuating homes and/or offices, they should back up their data.
“Back up your data on CDs, DVDs, or USB thumb drives,” advises Michelle Walker, General Manager of CBL Data Recovery Technologies’s Caribbean operations in Barbados where tropical storms have frequently landed uninvited. “Store them in a separate location or if you need to evacuate your home or office, these small devices can easily be taken with you.”
While personal safety is everyone’s foremost concern, victims of data loss due to flood or other storm fallout, shouldn’t panic. Once businesses examine the damage caused by flooding, they may be facing a data loss due to water-damaged personal computers, laptops and servers.
Walker advises that computer users with water-damaged hard drives or removable storage media:
- Do not attempt to use or turn on the water-damaged hardware
- Do not open the water-damaged media
- Do not expose the water-damaged media to heat to dry it
- Do not place the water-logged media in a freezer
- Do not agitate the hardware in an attempt to rid it of water.
So if you happen to find yourself under a tropical storm warning having to pack up your belongings, take the necessary precautions to safeguard the data on your computers. Back up your data and reduce the risk of data loss and business discontinuity. And if you do suffer a data loss, contact a reputable professional data recovery specialist.
Category: data loss prevention, helpful hints
Tags: backup, business continuity, data loss, data recovery, emergency services, hurricane, tropical storm, usb thumbdrive backup
