Case Study: Recovery of a Corrupted Database in a Management Application

February 15, 2024
Michelle West
Case Studies

Case Study: Recovery of a Corrupted Database in a Management Application

Client:
Sports Management Software Company

Recovery Type:
Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK)

Turn Around:
24 Hours*

Location:
East Coast, United States

This case study explores the recovery of a corrupted database in a sports management application and the successful data recovery by DriveSavers. The company that experienced data loss specializes in providing software and technology solutions tailored for sports organizations, aiming to streamline administrative tasks and enhance the overall experience for athletes, coaches, and administrators.

Due to the severity of the situation, the customer flew in from across the country and delivered the external device to DriveSavers for the Priority Non-Stop Service.

Data Loss Situation

Despite their efforts to optimize sports management operations, the company encountered a critical challenge when their Linux-based file system, spread across five Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK) files, suffered corruption. This led to a disruptive “bad magic number” error, severely hampering access to vital data stored within the system. Despite attempting various solutions, including fsck (used to check and optionally repair one or more Linux file systems) and backups, the issue persisted, leading to the system entering read-only mode.

Data Recovery Solution

DriveSavers analyzed the corrupted files, successfully extracting the spanned VMDKs from the zipped files despite encountering challenges such as lost file names and corrupted data. Their expertise led to a partial recovery of critical and usable data within a remarkably short timeframe of 24 hours. Notably, the recovered data included a reconstructed 1TB EXT4 volume formed from the extracted VMDK files.

Customer Quote

An email from the company to the DriveSavers engineers emphasized the importance of this data recovery:

It’s been a privilege to work with you and everyone on this. And it has been a wonderful education as well. I wanted to add one more note to this discussion related to the rapid recovery you were able to help us achieve.

It was yesterday, Sunday morning, when our largest single client was holding a conference for their members to announce a plan to fall back on an alternative platform provider to serve their needs at least temporarily.

Because of all of your help and the extra hours above and beyond, we were able to bring our system online within minutes of them making that announcement. You and I didn’t know this at the time, but a live audience had been assembled in a conference room, and they were able to all see us come back online, live, as it happened.

They have changed their decision and are now moving forward with us again. One by one, we’re working with our clients to get them situated again to resume operations this week.

I thought you should know how everything you did made a huge difference right up to the last minute.

Your patience and guidance were absolutely crucial each step of the way and have saved the day.

Summary

In conclusion, the sports management application, crucial for sports organizations, experienced a significant setback due to file system corruption. The strategic collaboration with DriveSavers proved immensely valuable, as it enabled partial recovery of critical data and prevented their valuable customer accounts from moving to a competitor.

This incident underscores the importance of robust data management strategies in the technology-driven landscape of sports management that include a partnership with a reliable data recovery service.

Learn more about the DriveSavers Business Partner Program.

*DriveSavers Standard Turnaround times are 1-2 Business days, Economy 5-7 Business days, and Priority 24/7 service – on occasion, unique substances require more time and are approved by the customer.