Skip to content

Data Recovery Tips: Handling Flooded, Water-Soaked Devices

4 tips for flooded devices

For as long as DriveSavers Data Recovery has been in business, we’ve recovered data from hard drives and other data storage devices that have suffered severe water damage. Some of our most spectacular saves include three hard drives that were intentionally thrown into a lake in an attempt to destroy evidence; countless devices from Hurricanes Ian, Harvey, and Katrina; the 1997 Grand Forks, ND Floods (covered by CNN); a Mac PowerBook that sank (along with a cruise ship) in the Amazon River, which is featured in our Museum of Bizarre Disk-asters.

The below tips will help maximize the chances for the successful recovery of water-damaged devices:
• Do not plug in or turn on wet computer equipment
• Do not open the device, even to attempt to dry it out
• Gently wipe down the outside of the device
• Call DriveSavers immediately, 1.800.440.1904, 24/7 to speak to a data recovery advisor

Mike Cobb, Director of Engineering and CISO
As Director of Engineering, Mike Cobb manages the day-to-day operations of the Engineering Department, including the physical and logical recoveries of rotational media, SSDs, smart devices and flash media. He also oversees the R&D efforts for past, present, and future storage technologies. Mike encourages growth and ensures that each of the departments and their engineers continues to gain knowledge in their field. Each DriveSavers engineer has been trained to ensure the successful and complete recovery of data is their top priority.

As Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Mike oversees cybersecurity at DriveSavers, including maintaining and updating security certifications such as SOC 2 Type II compliance, coordinating company security policy, and employee cybersecurity education.

Mike joined DriveSavers in 1994 and has a B.S. degree in Computer Science from the University of California, Riverside.

Back To Top
Search