Funny, tragic data disasters of the year

Data recovery firm Kroll Ontrack has published its annual list of data disasters reported by its customers. Excerpt:

8. Taking the bait – A fisherman thought that he would take his laptop out on his rowing boat to play a few games while waiting for a bite. As he stood up, both he and the laptop went overboard, taking all his data to the bottom of the lake.

7. Panicked photographer – A wedding photographer faced the potential wrath of a new bride when he discovered he had overwritten her photos with those from another event. Two days before the couple returned from their honeymoon, he called Kroll Ontrack for help. The bride was none the wiser.

6. Acid trip – A scientist spilled acid on an external hard drive during an experiment. Thinking all the data had been burned, he called in the experts who were able to successfully recover the data on the drive.

3. Quest for a quiet life – A British scientist was fed up with his hard drive squeaking, so he drilled a hole through the casing and poured oil into the mechanics. The squeaking stopped, and so did the hard drive.

1. Ant invasion – Discovering ants had taken up residence in his external hard drive, a photographer in Thailand took the cover off and sprayed the interior with insect repellent. The ants didn’t make it and until Kroll Ontrack’s engineers got their hands on it, it looked like the data wasn’t going to either.