This is an easy one. How long do you guys keep an image? I'm waiting for some client to call me two weeks after I've shipped his recovery DVD's or replacement drive (with recovered data) to tell me he never got it. In the meantime (during that two weeks), perhaps I reused the temporary drive I'm keeping his image on.

What do you guys do?

Hi,

Personally, in my contract, i have keep it only 3 days.

But there are some different cases:
Generally the 3 days starts from the new drive is arrived, and the customer replied this.
It the customer replied also, the data is in safe place, i need to clear the image immediately as described in the contract.

But if the client won't do that, i keep the image for 2 weeks after the arriving is replied.

And clean after this period.

Additionally, i always have 2 images.
For paranoia....

Janos

We keep a full backup for 48 hours after delivery confirmation. Tracking information is used to verify delivery. If they need more time, such as a business or third party, we charge a small reasonable monthly fee depending on the size.

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DF

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7-10 days from date of completion; sometimes longer if shipped to a dealer (who gives it to their customer).

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Max 15 days. Intermediate carriers erased on fifo base unless special request. After receiving written confirmation, the 15 days start anyway. Simple.

I tell the customer a maximum of 7 days after delivery, but I tend to keep it until I need the space.

I keep for 2 - 3 days after the date of delivery. After that if customer wants me to keep. then I charge him for Rs 100 (@ $2) per 10 GB, and keep his data for additional 3 days .

DF

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we keep all data until the client is happy then the drives get wiped

sending out recovered data in the post can end up being lost or damaged again

only delete the images once your client is happy with the out come.

If the client is paying all that money for data recovery, a week should be enough time for them to check their investment.

I keep my clients data 3 days backup after delivery. But if clients request for few extra days then I keep data backup without any charge until no data image needed.

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Anyway a rule must be set, disk space or alternate carriers (backup drives) are a valuable , LIMITED resource like shelf space and also I have to secure them, obviously. And the safety is a cost! Think as businessmen, we can't always give away resources for free, even the apparently harmless and invaluable have a great incidence in overall costs. Saving 1 cent on every drive, is 10 $ every 1000. How much in a year ?

I know some people will think we're nuts, but I agree with you.

There is an old saying that goes, "watch the pennies, and the dollars will take care of themselves."

My reason for asking was to make sure I was within "industry norms" for how long data is preserved before erasure.

Maybe there are norms that vary from state to state... I'll get informed

I usually tell my customers that i will keep a backup for 2 weeks. At the 2 week point i check with the customer and let them know the data will be erased. In some cases of 'difficult' customers who i know may need support or help later i keep the backup for up to 6 months.

As some of you said, this can take up disk space - i have about 12 TBs of space to backup customer data, this fills up quicker than you can imagine! I think i need to impliment a more strict policy like the rest of you - a few days i think is enough.

Zed, it depends.... in case of 100% successful DR the space can be cleaned up immediately, I think DISK space has a value per GB higher than buying blank DVDs in bulk for keeping data (less weight, too). You can destroy them easily when not necessary anymore, unless you use DVD-RW.
BTW , DVD-RW media is perfectly reliable to me, never had problems.
Some time ago I used also DAT streamer for backup, the cost of a 72GB tape is about 4 EUR, it's tiny, rugged and reliability is very high, but this solution is slow, and the drives require regular maintenance - and the drives are not cheap as a DVD writer . In some case it's easier and much cheaper to keep a DAT tape (1 tape = about 15 DVDs), you can give it to the customer for future reference....

I think DAT is a wonderful backup medium and terrible restore medium.

You're right but it works. And comparing i.e. Norton ghost it's not so slow...

Curious, Depending on the person and the media I recovery that data to, I give them the image to hold on to. Bad Idea?

I generally put recovered data on brand new drives which we sell the client, or I will put it on media they provide (with some notable exceptions and indemnifications).

However, my chief concern is some of these new drives will quickly fail. Apple requires the old drive in exchange for a new one (under warranty) and I want to be sure that the client won't be in the same spot (or worse!) than when his drive originally failed. So we give our clients instructions to back up the recovered data immediately, and that we warranty only the media (if we provide it) - not the data.

Jon

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