This guide is intended to help you recognize, react appropriately to and resolve a data emergency. It is not a technical support manual for the installation, configuration and upgrading of data storage devices and platforms, nor is it a how- to manual for data backup procedures. | Table of Contents INTRODUCTION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 WHAT IS DATA LOSS? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Emergency Information WHAT IS DATA RECOVERY?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 DATA LOSS PREVENTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Recognizing a Data Loss Situation RECOGNIZING A DATA LOSS SITUATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 What To Do First DATA RECOVERY PROCESS: WHAT TO DO FIRST?. . . . . . . . . . 18 What NOT To Do DATA EMERGENCY WORKSHEET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Data Emergency Worksheet ACTIONFRONT’S DATA RECOVERY PROCESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 CASE STUDIES: REAL LIFE DATA RECOVERY STORIES. . . . . . . 28 APPENDIX A: VENDOR HELP REFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 APPENDIX B: RELATED REFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 APPENDIX C: HANDLING TIPS & ESD PRECAUTIONS . . . . . . . 35 APPENDIX D: BEWARE DIY SOLUTIONS AND PRODUCTS. . . . . 36 APPENDIX E: HOW TO CHOOSE A DATA RECOVERY COMPANY. . 37 OUR PITCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Copyright 2002 1 Introduction This guide is intended to help you recognize, react appropriately to and resolve a data emergency. It is not a technical support manual for the installation, configuration and upgrading of data storage devices and platforms, nor is it a how-to manual for data backup procedures. The Data Emergency Guide will be most useful to computer users and technical support personnel experiencing a sudden data loss situation involving a previously functioning computer system or backup, or dealing with the accidental erasure of data or overwriting of data control structures. For general technical support and/or consultation on proper backup systems please consult your data storage vendor or your local computer systems supplier/integrator. This guide does include some excellent reference materials about
