Nearly all businesses large and small rely heavily on electronic technology for day-to-day operations, inventory control, all kinds of documentation (including payroll), and much more. If a business has been hit by disaster such as flooding or fire, the results can be disastrous not just for facility structures, but for IT systems, phone systems, and every other bit of electronic content. Fortunately, today's disaster cleanup companies offer an alternative to costly replacement: restoration services. Here's an overview of how electronics recovery works.

An amazing fact: Even if your computers have suffered severe damage to their outsides, did you know that with today's techniques data recovery rates stand at 75%? Restoration specialists are experts at saving and retrieving data from hard drives: a skill that saves businesses worldwide millions of dollars a year.

How It's Done

Of course, the specifics of electronics recovery will vary from cleanup company to cleanup company, but in most cases the process goes something like this:

--Electronic systems are brought to a "clean room" facility for decontamination and restoration.

--Each item is painstakingly disassembled, and then components are given a special "bath" that removes ash residue and other contaminants.

--The components are then put in a special drying chamber where they remain for at least 12 hours.

--Professional technicians reassemble the electronics so that they are just as they were before the incident. In most cases, the restoration company will also check to make sure items are in working order according to IIERC standards before they are returned to the customer.

The goal is always to restore rather than replace: and even water-logged computers can be saved in their entireties. In the case of fire damage, severely melted computers can have much of their data retrieved from them even if the units themselves are considered a loss.

If your place of business suffers a true catastrophe, never assume that everything will be a total loss: especially your electronics. Thanks to cleanup and restoration specialists you can save most if not all of your electronics, retrieve data, and reduce business interruption time.