3. The lawfirm's PC problem
A good-size law firm was inputting all their billing information into one of their office PCs using Timeslips billing software. They had been backing up diligently, so when the PC "crashed", they considered it an annoyance, but no one was greatly concerned.
However, when they began the process of accessing the backup, they found that for some reason, that drive was not working either and all panic set in. The drive held at least a year's billing information that could not be replicated in any way.
When they contacted us, they were very concerned that nothing could be done. We told them to send us the original hard disk first. Without much trouble we were able to diagnose the problem as a seized bearing in the motor spindle which prevented the drive from spinning up in the first place. We freed the seizure and recover all the client's data, happy to be able to save them from a nearly impossible business crisis.