Emergency Media Preservation Procedures After Water Damage

Never assume that data is unrecoverable, no matter what it has been through. These procedures are for any media (hard drives, SSD, flash, tapes, etc.).

General Procedures:
  • Allow to dry completely.
  • DO NOT power on.
  • DO NOT package in an air-tight, sealed container.
  • Ship in breathable packaging material.
Submerged in Water:
  • DO NOT attempt to dry water-logged media
  • Rinse the exterior with fresh water only
  • Re-submerge in doubled, heavy duty Zip Lock bags containing a 5% solution of IPA(Rubbing Alcohol) and fresh water.
  • To Prepare 5% IPA(Rubbing Alcohol) solution, mix 1 part 90% IPA with 17 parts fresh water.
  • 90% IPA can be purchased at any drug store
SHIP YOUR DRIVE FOR RECOVERY IMMEDIATELY. ANY DELAY WILL GREATLY INCREASE THE CHANCE OF UNRECOVERABLE CORROSION DAMAGE AND A PERMANENT LOSS OF DATA.

Packing:
  • Use a box about twice the size of your media.
  • Use enough packing material to allow for NO MOVEMENT of media inside the box.
  • Leave enough barrier room on all sides of the packaged media to absorb any impact the box may take.
  • If you have multiple drives, tapes or other removable media that need recovery, ship them in separate boxes or make sure they are separated enough with packing material so there will be no contact.