DriveSavers Year in Review: 2017 Highlights

2017 was a busy year for DriveSavers! It was full of new original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partnerships, the first ever inclusion of data recovery in an extended care bundle provided by an OEM (Drobo), free data recoveries offered for victims of hurricanes and fires across the nation, new data recovery capabilities, updated security standards and new drop-off locations across the U.S. and Canada. Read on for some highlights from this past year.

Thecus-DriveSavers Partnership

March 2017: Thecus, a leading manufacturer of network attached storage (NAS) and network video recorder solutions, authorized DriveSavers to provide data recovery services to Thecus users worldwide. Use of a NAS helps to ensure data security. Unfortunately, data loss may still occur in instances of multiple hard drive failures, acts of nature or failing to back up when installing a new operating system or reformatting. To best support their customers in such circumstances, Thecus partnered with DriveSavers as a preferred data recovery service provider.
Read more about the Thecus-DriveSavers partnership.

ASUSTOR-DriveSavers Partnership

July 2017: ASUSTOR Inc., a leading innovator and provider of network storage solutions, announced a partnership with DriveSavers Data Recovery, a leading data recovery provider, to provide ASUSTOR customers with professional remote and laboratory data recovery solutions at a discounted rate along with free shipping and free evaluations on all DVR, RAID, NAS and SAN devices. All ASUSTOR NAS products feature not only 3-year warranties and comprehensive backup functions, but also data recovery solutions that provide customers multiple layers of data protection and security.
Read more about the ASUSTOR-DriveSavers partnership.

New DriveSavers Drop-off Locations

July 2017: DriveSavers already provided free overnight FedEx shipping to our customers within the U.S. and Canada; however, the company found that many customers prefer to hand-deliver their devices to someone who will package and send their devices for them. To accommodate this preference and provide greater customer service, DriveSavers opened twenty-two drop-off locations across the U.S. and Canada.
Read more about DriveSavers drop-off locations.

DriveSavers Meets New SSAE 18 Security Standards

August 2017: In 2017, The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) enacted updated attestation standards for SOC 1 and 2, requiring all service organizations who wish to certify to pass Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements (SSAE) No. 18, otherwise known as SSAE 18, rather than the previous standard, SSAE 16.
The new standards are meant to converge the varying degrees of compliance standards that previously existed and bring all U.S. standards up to international standards of compliance. New requirements by these regulations are practices that DriveSavers had already been adhering to for several years.
Read more about DriveSavers SOC 2 Type II SSAE 18 security compliance.

DriveSavers Data Recovery Ready for New Apple File System

August 2017: Announced at Apple’s 2017 Worldwide Developers Conference as part of macOS High Sierra, the new Apple File System (APFS) offered improved performance and security. Even while APFS was in its beta version, DriveSavers was ready to retrieve data stored on drives formatted with APFS should users lose access to their drives during the beta test period or with the final release of macOS High Sierra.
The company also warned that, because APFS changes the way data is stored on a drive, the only option to go back to an older or current release version of macOS was to completely erase and reformat the drive—wiping out all the data in the process. DriveSavers recommended that users complete a backup of their systems prior to updating to macOS High Sierra and the new APFS.
Read more about DriveSavers capabilities regarding APFS.

Free Data Recoveries for Hurricanes Harvey and Irma Victims

August and September 2017: DriveSavers provided free data recovery services to Texas and Florida residents who lost data as a result of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. In total, DriveSavers offered over $800,000 in time, resources and years of expertise to retrieve data from water-damaged hard drives, smartphones, tablets, laptops and other data storage devices.
Read more about services donated to Hurricane Harvey victims.
Read about the deadline extension for services offered to Hurricane Harvey victims.
Read more about services donated to Hurricane Irma victims.

Discounted Data Recoveries for Victims of Mexico Earthquake

September 2017: DriveSavers offered a fifty percent discount on data recovery services to central Mexico and Mexico City residents who were impacted by the massive 7.1 magnitude earthquake on Sept. 19.
Read more about services offered to victims of the Mexico earthquake.

Free Data Recoveries for Victims of California Wildfires

October and December 2017: The October wildfires that spread across Northern California personally affected many DriveSavers employees, including Director of Engineering Mike Cobb who lost his Santa Rosa home in the fire. DriveSavers employees dedicated themselves to helping victims by providing free data recovery services. When the Southern California wildfires occurred in December, DriveSavers employees felt a personal connection with victims there and provided the same offer with the same dedication.
Read more about services offered to victims of the Northern California wildfires.
Read more about services offered to victims of the Southern California wildfires.

Drobo-DriveSavers Partnership Adds Data Recovery to DroboCare Platinum Edition Protection Packages

November 2017: Drobo announced two new special editions for the 5N2 and the 5D3 to bring performance and peace of mind to power users. These special editions are best-in-class complements to Drobo’s stellar history of delivering award-winning simple, safe and smart storage solutions.
Among other major benefits, the Platinum packages include one instance of a data recovery service from DriveSavers Data Recovery within a five year period. This partnership is an industry first and a direct result of our power users’ desire to ensure their data will never be compromised.
DriveSavers has the highest recovery rate for mechanical, water and fire damage, file corruption, and more on hard drives and all data storage devices. Drobo has an exclusive partnership with DriveSavers for this level of service, potentially saving customers thousands of dollars in recovery fees.
Read more about Drobo Gold and Platinum Editions.
Watch a video from Drobo announcing their partnership with DriveSAvers for DroboCare Platinum Edition

What’s Ahead for 2018?

2018 is already shaping up to be an exciting year for DriveSavers.
Drobo has worked with DriveSavers to develop a partnership that is the first of its kind. We’re looking forward to working with more OEMs in a similar manner to add data recovery into their care packages and provide peace of mind for more customers worldwide.
Storage technology continues to evolve at a startling pace. Relentless problem solvers, DriveSavers engineers are excited to get their hands on new devices and develop unique data recovery solutions.
The new drop-off locations in the U.S. and Canada are proving to be a popular choice. DriveSavers intends to extend this option overseas. A new drop-off location in London is already in the works and is scheduled to open in the early part of 2018. If this location proves to be as useful to the company’s customers as those locations in North America, there may be more to follow.
What more is in store for DriveSavers in 2018? Stay tuned to find out!