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Singapore laboratory retrieves more than 100000 lost legal documents

Notary Public (NOTARIS/PPAT SOEHENDRO GAUTAMA, SH. M. Hum), a legal services company based in Batam, Indonesia, had gone through a technological revolution in 2005. The company digitized its legal documents and property deeds which dated back to 1993 and previously had been filed in a large number of filing cabinets spread over its 600 square meter office. It had taken 2 staff members almost a year to complete the tedious scanning process. Once these documents were safely in the digital realm, the original paper copies were destroyed, to maintain confidentiality.

Andre Djaafar, a Notary Public Assistant at Notary Public, was the key person who initiated this move and was pleased now that the project was completed. Documents were safe from environmental harm such as mold and decay. And, retrieval now took only seconds. Not intending to rest on his laurels, Andre backed up the information once a fortnight and even changed the drives of the server in 2007. Despite his efforts, things took a turn for the worst in April 2008.

While Andre was at his desk, looking through some documents, his colleagues suddenly informed him that no one was able to access the database on the server. Andre called for an IT technician who tried to reboot the system, but the server would not start. The technician even went to the extent of trying the hard disk in another computer, but to no avail, it would not boot.

Remembering that he had diligently backed up the company’s data, Andre retrieved the backup hard drive and connected it to his computer. His relief was short-lived, however, when he realized that the last backup had not completed successfully and the files were corrupted. It was at this exact moment, when Andre felt his stomach crawl up his throat.

Most of the legal documents that existed in Notary Public were the only copies in the world. In the event of disputes, clients and government officials alike would require the services of Notary Public to produce these documents for clarification. If these documents did not exist anymore, Notary Public would lose the confidence of the government, as well as past and potential clients. Above any immediate financial impact, the firm could not afford to damage its reputation. The business depended on this information.

Knowing that the firm needed this data back urgently at any cost, Andre quickly conducted a web search and contacted the first data recovery company he saw.

The company was based in Singapore and required that Andre take the time-consuming trip by boat to Singapore to personally deliver the drive to the data recovery firm. Upon receipt of the drive, the service was frustrating. The company had no sense of urgency, and gave no form of assurance to Andre that the recovery could be performed successfully in the first place. The lack of confidence was extremely unsettling to Andre. The final straw came when he opted for the premium priority service and was promptly refused.

Frustrated, Andre checked in with the hard drive’s distributor and was referred to CBL Singapore.

“CBL’s competency was very soothing”

Upon the first telephone call he placed into CBL, Andre was pleased and reassured by the level of confidence that CBL could offer. CBL’s international network of labs and technicians was reassuring and was able to fill him with the belief that he would get his data back. “CBL’s competency was very soothing,” commented Andre, “I knew that our data was in good hands.”

Over the weekend, barely 48 hours after being contacted by Andre, the technicians at CBL had recovered Notary Public’s data. Despite having to specially rebuild parts of the hard drive, the recovery was a complete success. Years upon years of information was recovered and would save Notary Public’s reputation, on top of an immeasurable amount of money and man-hours. The relief on Andre’s face when he searched through the files was worth much more than that.

Notary Public will now put some new procedures in place, in addition to having a dedicated IT technician take care of its server. Daily data backup plans have also been put in place and they have also changed their server to a more stable system, utilizing SATA drives in favor of ailing SCSI technology.