Recovering Lost Family Photos from a Damaged Laptop

Recovering Lost Family Photos from a Damaged Laptop

After more than 35 years in business, Ontrack has completed a myriad of data recoveries from hard drives to virtualized systems and everything in between. We take pride in retrieving important files for all types of customers, including individuals, small businesses, enterprise organizations, and even governments. While we approach all our work with extraordinary care, there are some data recovery requests that take on extra importance. The story of this data recovery is one such request.

Treasured Photos Amid a Family Tragedy

A family had taken photos of an event they attended earlier in the day, all of which were saved on the father’s laptop. The father was a pilot, and after the event, he and several family members left in a small airplane with the laptop on board. Sadly, the plane crashed, leaving no survivors.

From the crash site, the father’s laptop was recovered and returned to surviving family members. They looked to Ontrack to see if anything could be recovered from the laptop, which had been badly burned in the accident. What remained of the laptop was shipped to Ontrack’s Eden Prairie facility in Minnesota.

The Data Recovery Process

In Ontrack’s clean room, the team was able to cut the drive out of the melted plastic of the laptop. Once the drive was removed, the team opened it, cleaned the contents, and moved the platters to a donor drive. In the new drive, Ontrack’s team of experts obtained a full image of the damaged drive. Using that image, Ontrack engineers recovered all the data on the burned laptop—including family photos taken at the event prior to the crash.

The Weight of Lost Data and the Meaning in Its Recovery

At Ontrack, we understand how difficult it is to lose data, especially under such devastating circumstances as this family endured. It’s why we work diligently to recover every file possible. The sense of relief our customers feel when we’re able to retrieve an important file motivates us to continue even when circumstances of the loss are particularly difficult or challenging. In this data recovery request, the ability to give grieving family members a small piece of their lost loved ones back is deeply fulfilling and we’re grateful to be chosen to help.

We are here 24/7 if you need assistance in recovering lost files. Contact us anytime to discuss your data loss situation.