TIPS YOU NEED TO
KEEP DATA SAFE FROM A POWER SURGE
Spring storms are just beginning and bringing
with them severe lightning that can wreak havoc on your computer
system. Starting in March at ReWave Data Recovery, the
company sees an increase in the number of hard drives damaged by
power surge caused by lightning. A power surge can destroy the
external electronic circuitry of a hard drive and even cause
irreparable damage to the delicate components inside the drive.
The best case scenario would be circuit board damage. The worst
case would be what is called a "head crash". A head crash occurs
when the read write arm inside the hard drive crashes down upon
the magnetic platters which house data resulting in damage to
the platter surface. In most of these cases, the hard drive will
exhibit signs of failure including making a clicking sound, not
powering up at all, or the drive does not appear in the BIOS. If
this occurs, it is crucial that the user power down the system
and remove the hard drive. Continuing to use the damaged drive
will only decrease the chances data can be recovered.
ReWave has over 16 years of experience
performing data recovery on defective hard drives and other
media. Most often, a hard drive severely damaged by lightning
will need to have parts replacement in ReWave's data recovery
clean room in order to recover data from the drive. ReWave's
recovery services start at $500 for laptop hard drive data
recovery, and the company always offers a free evaluation for
all types of media including RAID. This equates to significant
savings if you need RAID hard drive recovery as some companies
charge a hefty evaluation fee for RAID recovery service.
So what can users do to protect their computer
systems from power surge? An easy and inexpensive way to protect
your system is to shut it down and unplug it during an
electrical storm. If this method is not feasible, then
purchasing a good surge protector is the next best method of
protection. The job of a surge protector is to consume excess
voltage produced by a power surge. When choosing a surge
protector, it is important to review product ratings to ensure
it is of good quality. A more pricey choice would be to purchase
a high quality UPS (uninterruptible power supply). A UPS
operates on a battery which allows the computer to remain
running during a power outage. No matter what method is chosen,
the user should frequently back up their data to further protect
themselves from catastrophic damage to their system.
