If you think that only paper documents could be salvaged given a water damage crisis, then think again. Now, after mastering the art of document freezing and drying, let us now explore the possibility of saving even some of the high-tech storage devices out there in the market today. First, we have to consider if the equipment was turned on at the time of the exposure. If yes, then this could entail much work on your part so without anymore blabber, let's get the document drying process started!



Open cabinet doors; remove all side panels, covers and chassis drawers to allow water to run out the equipment naturally. Try to remove the remaining standing water with wet vacuums. Low pressure air is advised to blot up water.

Take extra precautions in document drying by wrapping the wrap connectors and header pins and backplanes to avoid bending. Equipment with open relays and transformers will require special attention before the application of the power. Document drying could be reinforced further by using water displacement aerosol lubricant sprays to protect critical components.

We should keep in mind that the first 24 hours of exposure to the effects of water can determine what steps should be taken to restore the magnetic data storage media. The cardinal rule in considering if a storage device could still be salvaged is, once the magnetic media itself was exposed to contaminants it is better to throw them away!

Removable hard disk fresh from a head crash could still be salvaged however the means would be very tedious and may require special equipment. Contaminated media is replaced with clean ones, restoration of media is more on the emergency cleaning of the media so that data may be copied to other storage devices, fast. Disk read or write heads could be even more damaged if the instruments that you used for cleaning is not clean or sterilized. Head crash may not only damage the drive but may cause loss of some data. An optical media on the other hand is said to read data through the optically clear substrate material by a low power laser diode. It is so sensitive that mere scratches may cause data error, thus document drying is much intensive here.

In document drying a compact disc, one should consider the sensitivity of the protective lacquer coating. Because once that it is already damaged, the data layer degrades at an accelerated rate. The surface should be protected during a document drying process or the removing of contaminants. Don't dry them out! Let them dry naturally and after that try cleaning it.

As for document drying microfilms, microfiche, and x-ray films, the drying process should be done while it is still wet or when the gelatin coating can stick to the next layer and the part for document information may be torn from the film. When drying documents out, always use gloves and wash your hands thoroughly to prevent infection from other bio-contaminants. Document freezing could also be employed on these specialty products if one needs to stretch its shelf life until someone knowledgeable could attend to it.