DriveSavers

DriveSavers, Inc.
Company typePrivate
IndustryData Recovery[1]
Founded1985
FounderJay Hagan, Scott Gaidano
Headquarters
Novato, California
Key people
Alex Hagan, CEO
Scott Moyer, President
Jay Hagan, Chairman
Websitedrivesaversdatarecovery.com

DriveSavers, Inc. is a computer hardware data recovery company located in Novato, California.[2][3][4] It was founded by former CEO Jay Hagan and former company President Scott Gaidano in 1985.[5][6][7]

History

In 1985, former Jasmine Technologies executives Jay Hagan and Scott Gaidano founded DriveSavers, operating from Gaidano’s condo with $1,400.[6][5][7][8] DriveSavers originally offered both hard drive repair and data recovery services, but the company dropped its drive repair services within its first eight months.[7]

In 1992, DriveSavers signed an agreement with SuperMac Technology to assume technical support and warranty obligations for SuperMac Mass Storage Products.[9]

The company merged with Data Recovery Disk Repair in 1994 and retained the DriveSavers name.[6] In 2008, DriveSavers invested two million dollars to build a series of five ISO-certified cleanrooms to disassemble and rebuild damaged hard drives.[10][2][6][8]

From 2004-2009, the company grew from 35 to 85 employees.[11]

DriveSavers also works with "the more secretive" branches of government and celebrities.[5][11] In order to provide comfort and assistance to clients with a data loss situation, DriveSavers has on staff an individual "data crisis counselor."[12][13] This counselor has had experience in working for a suicide hotline.

DriveSavers is the only recovery firm licensed with every major hard-drive manufacturer, so their work on a drive does not void the warranty.[5] It can recover data from hard disk drives, solid state drives, smart phones, servers, digital camera media and iOS devices.[10][3][14][15][16] The company can recover data from T2 and M1-powered Macs with embedded SSD storage.[17] Even with cloud backup, personal data loss is still possible, but can be recovered.[3] The company recovered data from old floppy disks of the deceased Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, potentially containing lost episodes of the franchise.[18]

DriveSavers is certified HIPAA-compliant, undergoes annual SOC2 Type II reviews and has encryption training certificates from GuardianEdge, PGP, PointSec and Utimaco.[2][19]

Security certifications and practices

DriveSavers facility is made up of cleanrooms.[20] The cleanrooms come in different ratings depending on the application and range from federal standards of 100,000 to 100. The rating is a measure of the number of 0.1-micron-sized airborne particulates per square meter.

DriveSavers employees have to go through background checks, because of contracts with state, and federal government agencies. The company also has to meet data-security standards that its clients do, like HIPAA certification to work with hospitals and GLBA certification to work with financial institutions.

Awards

  • Storage Visions, Visionary Company Award, 2014[21]
  • Flash Memory Summit, Most Innovative Flash Memory Consumer Application Award, 2018[22]
  • Better Business Bureau, A+ rating[23]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Does Missing Florida Teens' iPhone Hold Critical Clues?". NBC News. Retrieved 2022-01-25.
  2. ^ a b c Alex Wawro (June 5, 2013). "Smash smartphone. Throw it in the ocean. Hope DriveSavers doesn't get it". PC World. Retrieved September 16, 2013.
  3. ^ a b c Mat Honan (August 17, 2012). "Mat Honan: How I Resurrected My Digital Life After an Epic Hacking". Wired. Retrieved September 16, 2013.
  4. ^ Honan, Mat. "How DriveSavers Got My Data Back". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2022-01-25.
  5. ^ a b c d Chris Taylor (June 3, 2003). "Fried Your Drive?". Time. Retrieved September 16, 2013.
  6. ^ a b c d Tony C. Yang (August 31, 2008). "Saving the day by saving data". San Francisco Business Journal. Retrieved September 16, 2013.
  7. ^ a b c Christine Kilpatrick (April 9, 2000). "Cyber-saviors". San Francisco Business Journal. Retrieved September 16, 2013.
  8. ^ a b Rik Myslewski (August 29, 2008). "Profile: DriveSavers stays true to data-recovery roots". MacWorld. Retrieved September 16, 2013.
  9. ^ Mark H. Anbinder (September 14, 1992). "SuperMac & DriveSavers". TidBITS. Retrieved September 16, 2013.
  10. ^ a b Neil J. Rubenking (March 10, 2010). "Inside the DriveSavers Clean Rooms". PC Magazine. Retrieved September 16, 2013.
  11. ^ a b Chris Taylor (October 26, 2009). "The tech catastrophe you're ignoring". Fortune. Retrieved September 16, 2013.
  12. ^ Lazarus, David (February 23, 2003). "Psychologist helps victims of data loss / Some soothing words after the data wreck". SFGate. Retrieved December 7, 2018.
  13. ^ Neighbor, Joseph (July 25, 2016). "The 'Swedish Fish Theory' Is About More Than Candy". Vice Media. Retrieved December 7, 2018.
  14. ^ David Dahlquist (April 21, 2010). "DriveSavers Adds IPad Data Recovery Service". PCWorld. Retrieved September 16, 2013.
  15. ^ Andy Ihnatko (September 19, 2012). "The camera from the bottom of the lagoon". TechHive. Retrieved September 16, 2013.
  16. ^ Neil J. Rubenking (April 11, 2008). "What Drives Can DriveSavers Save?". PC Magazine. Retrieved September 16, 2013.
  17. ^ Eckel, Erik (2021-02-16). "DriveSavers can recover lost data from an M1-powered Mac". TechRepublic. Retrieved 2022-02-02.
  18. ^ "How Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry's words were freed from old floppy disks". PCWorld. Retrieved 2022-02-01.
  19. ^ "DriveSavers Answers Your Data Recovery Questions". FileSlinger. Retrieved September 16, 2013.
  20. ^ Honan, Mat. "How DriveSavers Got My Data Back". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2022-02-02.
  21. ^ "DriveSavers Wins 2014 Storage Visions Visionary Company Award". Retrieved 2018-08-09.
  22. ^ "DriveSavers Data Recovery Wins 2018 Flash Memory Summit Most Innovative Flash Memory Consumer Application Award". Retrieved 2018-08-09.
  23. ^ "DriveSavers, Inc. | Better Business Bureau® Profile". www.bbb.org. Retrieved 2022-03-15.