As usual, Kroll Ontrack have produced their annual report of the top 10 data recovery disasters. It’s one of those things which can be interesting when you want something vaguely IT-related to read at work on the run up to Christmas but you can’t really be bothered to actually, you know… work.

Obviously the stories all end with a happy ending as Kroll Ontrack help the customers to recover their data. You may presume that this is because it would be a less useful marketing piece if they looked at cases where the customer’s data was not salvageable, or it could just be The Power of Kroll.

Note that I’m not saying that the data is actually recovered by a big squid-like monster from Tom Baker-era Doctor Who, I’ve not actually checked this out, so it’s always possible that this is just a coincidence. On the other hand, so far as I am aware, the company have never explicitly denied that the data recovery work is carried out by big squid-like monsters.

On the other hand, irrespective of who is carrying out the work, some of their data recovery results are impressive — here’s the top two:

2. Sunken drive. A hard drive plummeted 200 feet to the ocean’s floor. It was discovered six months later and was sent to Kroll Ontrack’s cleanroom, where 99 percent of the data was imaged and recovered.

1. Law trouble. As legal officials entered the home of a criminal suspect, the individual in question threw a laptop containing potentially pertinent evidence out the window of a 12-story building. As a result, the laptop smashed into many pieces on the sidewalk. Investigators turned to Kroll Ontrack to recover the photos, videos and e-mails.

Top 10 Data Disasters and Remarkable Recoveries 2009