Clean Rooms and Data Recovery

If you have done any researching at all into data recovery, you know that clean rooms are almost always the most talked about tool in a data recovery service's arsenal. If the industry hype is to be believed, a clean room is the ONLY thing that is important to data recovery success. ISO 5, Class 100, particles per square foot, 0.5 micron particles, temperature, humidity, bunny suits, and other industry jargon are rampant on industry websites. Buzz words meant to impress, but that have little to do with the actually recovery of data.

So what is a clean room and why is it important?

In layman's terms, a clean room is a surgical room for hard drives. During the recovery process, data recovery engineers open SOME storage devices to inspect for physical damage and repair or replace delicate components. Tiny airborne particles can accumulate on the open hard drive platters, causing read-write heads to malfunction and damage the platter surfaces. When this happens, valuable data can be lost forever. A clean environment is extremely important when dealing with the inner workings of a failed hard drive, but only a fraction of the actual process of recovering data. How would you feel if you walked into an emergency room with a broken arm and all the nurse talked about was how clean their surgical room is? Sounds a bit silly. That is how most data recovery companies sound to those of us that know data recovery. Doctors, nurses, physical therapists, support personnel, access to equipment and parts, and tons of other things are more important than how clean the room is. Cleanliness is a given.

Skilled engineers and technicians, customer support, state of the art equipment, parts, professional collaboration, and tons of other things are so much more important than how clean the air is. Every reputable data recovery service has a clean room. That is a given. The trick in data recovery is to find the reputable companies. As far as a clean room is concerned, only two questions need be asked;

The answers to these questions would be hilarious if they were not so deceptive. The government does not regulate data recovery clean rooms. Clean rooms are not classified. The engineers are not too busy to take time to talk to customers. Companies do not, nor could they afford, to have a clean room at or close to all of their locations. (Fusion Data Recovery has 27 office locations and 1 clean room location.) Sadly, the sales people for many data recovery service providers are usually convinced that what they are saying is true. If any answer to these questions seems even a little bit strange, that company should probably be avoided.

Does Fusion Data Recovery have a clean room?

Yes, we do! Now for a short list of buzz words. Our clean room is an ISO 5 Class 100 environment. Humidity and temperature controlled, with less than 100 particles larger than 0.5 microns per square foot. Every precaution is used as far as gloves, masks, and other clothing to keep damaging particles from the inner workings of the hard drive. Enough said.