How to Recover Your Data When Disaster Strikes
by Technology Policy and Projects staff
September 20, 2005 – Recovering electronic health records is an important step in restoring practice operations in the wake of a disaster. Both psychologists whose practices were damaged by Hurricane Katrina, and practitioners faced with a disaster such as a flood, earthquake, fire, or terrorist act, are confronted with the challenge of securing important practice records that have been compromised.
The good news is that data can often be recovered from even severely damaged computer hard drives or other media. Do not assume your data is lost until you have taken steps to recover and secure it and you have talked with a disaster data recovery firm or specialist.
This article outlines steps practitioners can take to recover and secure data from a computer or other electronic media (such as disks, tapes or CDs) that have been damaged or destroyed in a disaster.
Initial Steps
Some primary data recovery steps to take in the wake of a disaster include the following:
1. Locate and secure the computer hardware and media containing your data. If you are working with emergency or other personnel, notify them that the computer and media you are looking for contain confidential information. If you are bound by HIPAA regulations, this information is considered electronic protected health information, or EPHI.
2. Once the items are located, remove them from the disaster site as quickly as you can, making an effort to inflict as little additional damage as possible.
3. After you have moved the items to as secure a location as possible, inspect them to determine what type of damage has occurred. In many cases, it is likely that some part of the computer or media have been physically destroyed or harmed.
Preparing Your Computer Media for Recovery
Depending on the type of damage that has occurred, there are steps you can take to improve the chances that the information on your computer’s hard drive or other media can be recovered. These steps include:
In the Case of Water Damage
-- Do not attempt to restart or reboot your computer. While the computer drive may seem dry, small amounts of water may linger on internal or external components, causing a short when power is restored.
-- Do not dry a wet drive or media. Place them in a plastic bag with an airtight zip closure as quickly as possible. Dried water leaves mineral deposits and other contaminants on the media surface that can lead to a crash when power is restored.
In the Case of Fire Damage
-- If your computer is wet from fire hoses, remove the wet hard drive. Do not dry it, and place it in a plastic bag with an airtight zip closure.
-- If the drive is "sealed" in a melted computer case, leave it intact (inside the case).
-- Do not attempt to restart or reboot your computer. Extreme pressure changes during a fire can pull water and contaminants inside a hard drive through small air vents that can make restarting the machine dangerous. In addition, dried water leaves mineral deposits and other contaminants on the media surface that can lead to a crash when power is restored.
In the Case of an Impact Trauma (for example, your computer or media were dropped or crushed)
-- Do not restart or reboot the computer. Trauma can damage the read/write heads and media surface, cause misalignment, and cause a crash when you restart the machine.
Using a Disaster Data Recovery Service
-- Once you have determined the type of damage sustained and you have taken the appropriate steps to prepare the media for recovery, the next step is to identify a disaster data recovery firm or specialist with appropriate knowledge, skills and equipment.
There are a number of local and national firms that specialize in recovering data from severely damaged computer hard drives or other media. Examples of disaster recovery firms include:
• Disaster Recovery Group
• DriveSavers
• VantageTech
While many small computer companies provide limited data recovery capabilities, they generally do not have the experience, resources, and specialized equipment provided by full-time disaster data recovery firms.
A reputable firm will work with you to analyze your hardware or media, determine if steps can be taken to recover your data, and provide you with a cost estimate before starting any work. Note that the firm will want to know how you would like to get your data back--on disk, tape, CD, DVD or in a password-protected file that can be accessed via the Internet.
Keep in mind that if you hire a firm to recover patient information (e.g., notes, records, reports, etc.) that qualifies as EPHI under the HIPAA Privacy, Security, and Transaction Rules, you should consider asking the firm to sign a Business Associates Agreement requiring it to conform to HIPAA requirements. This will contractually require the store to treat the information as private and confidential.
A final note: Talk with your insurance company to see if you can claim the costs of your disaster data recovery efforts.
Recovering Data When No Hardware or Media Are Salvageable
What steps can you take when you cannot locate any of your hardware or media, or when the hardware or media are so catastrophically damaged that data cannot be recovered?
Start by contacting vendors or firms with whom you work and ask if they can provide you with electronic versions of information that you have provided in the past. For example, check with your Internet Service Provider to see if email files have been stored or archived, and can be recovered. Contact insurance companies, managed care firms, and electronic claims vendors (if applicable) to determine if they can identify and provide you with patient, claims or other appropriate data, and in what format.
While these steps are unlikely to provide you with directly useable data (data that can be easily added to a new computer system), they will provide basic information about the kinds of data that were lost and will help guide you when you start the process of rebuilding the computer system that supports your practice.
PLEASE NOTE: The service providers and products mentioned here are provided simply as examples and do not constitute endorsements by the APA Practice Organization. There are other similar products and services available that are not identified in this article.
Download_Data_Recovery.pdf
(85.79 Kb)
