- Client
- Anonymous — software provider managing databases on behalf of its own customers
- Sector
- Software or IT services
- Outcome
- Audit, customer and operational data recovered, and customer systems back in service
- What we do
- Assessment of each damaged database and backup, data recovery, structure rebuilds, validated restored backups, and support through restoration
- Technology
- SQL Server
The situation
These databases weren’t slow or unreliable. They wouldn’t open. There were several of them, in separate customer environments, holding audit records, operational data and customer information.
The provider’s position was difficult in a particular way. These weren’t only its own records. They belonged to its customers, and losing them meant failing the people who depended on it.
Assess first
The work started with analysis, not attempted fixes. We examined the damaged database files and the backups in each environment, and assessed each database on its own condition. Only then was there a plan worth following.
The recovery
We recovered the business-critical records from the damaged sources, and rebuilt database structures where the originals were beyond repair. Restored backup files were produced so everything could be tested before it went near a live system.
Recovered data was checked, not assumed to be good. Half-recovered data that nobody has validated is its own kind of problem.
Where the standard recovery methods didn’t work, we used other techniques to get more back. That persistence is usually the difference between a partial recovery and a good one. We supported the provider’s team through testing and restoration until the systems were back.
What came back
Large volumes of audit and historical records were recovered, along with customer and operational information that would otherwise have been lost. Usable backups were produced, integrity problems were fixed after restoration, and several customer systems returned to service.
The provider kept serving its own customers throughout.
Why it mattered
Audit trails and workflow records aren’t just history. They’re what you rely on when a customer or a regulator asks what happened and when.
Recovery was also far cheaper than the alternatives. Rebuilding the information by hand, where that was even possible, would have cost much more, and accepting the loss more still.
Get in touch
Is a database refusing to open?
Stop writing to it, take a copy if you can, and ring. Tell us what it is and what happened just before. We’ll tell you what’s likely to be recoverable and how we’d go about it.
