I’ve been thinking about writing a diary entry for a while, but wasn’t sure that anything that I do, or that happens to me, was of the slightest interest to anyone. Maybe this isn’t either, but due to current circumstances I may as well.
My personal server machine, which runs my web server, mail server, webmail, and other services for myself, several friends, and a few small businesses, was until today physically located in a friend’s garage. My friend had a wireless internet link with better than 4 Mbps bandwidth. Note my use of the past tense.
Early this morning, a fire broke out in the garage. The exact cause has not been identified, but it was apparently something in the vicinity of the computers. Fortunately my friend was still awake at the time, and discovered the fire long before the smoke detector in the house went off. He was able to rouse his wife and daughter, and they and the dogs all got out safely.
The garage is still standing, but is seriously damaged, as is part of the house. They will have to live elsewhere for about four months.
My server machine is now in a large plastic garbage bag in the trunk of my car. The front plastics of the case are basically completely burned away. I’ll try to get some photos online soon, although obviously at the moment I can’t put them on my own site.
Tonight a different friend and I will disassemble the machine and try to determine whether the hard drive can be read. Through my own complacency about the reliability of the system (a euphemism for “stupidity”), I do not have a recent backup. I am a little bit concerned that attempting to spin up the drive might cause further damage making it that much harder to recover the data. On the other hand, the drive was probably still operating despite intense heat until either the power failed or it developed mechanical problems, so maybe trying to spin it up now can’t make it that much worse.
If we can’t read the drive ourselves, I’ll want to send it to a data recovery company. I know this will cost a lot of money. My main concern will be to find a company that is truly expert, rather than bozos that can only do the same sorts of simple-minded recovery efforts I can do myself. And ideally I’d like to find a company that specifically has experience with drives that have been through fires. If anyone can offer recomendations, please let me know.