lost and found: some of the most standout data recovery stories in 25 years of Kotar Data Recovery

At Kotar Data Recovery, we've seen it all—failed hard drives, water-damaged phones, ransomware attacks, and storage devices that looked beyond saving. Over the past 25 years, we’ve recovered millions of files, but some cases stand out as truly unbelievable. From once-in-a-lifetime projects to last-hope recoveries, these are some of the most extraordinary success stories in our history.

The novel that came back to life

One of the most inspiring cases would be an author who had spent five years writing a novel when disaster struck. Her laptop crashed, and with it, the only existing copy of her manuscript disappeared. Worse yet, her hard drive had suffered severe physical damage, making traditional recovery methods nearly impossible.
Believing all was lost, she turned to our data recovery experts as a last resort. Using advanced forensic techniques and a painstaking process of reconstructing fragments of the file, our team was able to recover 97% of the novel - enough for the author to finish and publish her book.

Lesson learned: Always backup your important files in multiple locations. A cloud backup or even an external hard drive could have prevented the near loss of five years of work.

A flooded office and the trial that almost collapsed

A law firm faced disaster when a huge storm flooded their office. Their entire IT infrastructure - servers, desktops, and backup drives - was submerged for over 24 hours. They realized that their clients' records and legal documents were gone. Among the lost files was important evidence related to a significant fraud case involving a financial scam. With no access to financial records, witness testimonies, or wire transfer data, the case was on the verge of collapse. 

Faced with the possibility of not only losing these files but years of case files, they turned to us for help. When the drives arrived, they were covered in mud, rust, and corrosion. Using specialized chemical treatments and ultrasonic cleaning, we removed debris without causing further damage. We then extracted the internal storage components in a controlled cleanroom environment, bypassing failed circuitry and rebuilding missing file structures. After extensive reconstruction, we recovered 95% of their critical data. Thanks to the recovered evidence, the fraudster was convicted and sentenced.

Lesson learned: Legal and financial data should always have secure off-site backups.

A wedding day saved 

One of our most emotional recoveries involved a newly wed couple, devastated when they realized their wedding photos and videos - the only copies of the ceremony and reception - were stored on a memory card that had accidentally ended up in their laundry, going through a full wash-and-dry cycle before they realized their mistake.
The SD card was bent, corroded, and completely unrecognizable to their computer.
With hope fading, they reached out to our data recovery lab specializing in extreme cases. 
Through micro-soldering techniques and direct chip-off recovery, we reconstructed the data bit by bit and rescued 100% of their wedding photos - every kiss, every smile, every dance, every moment.

Lesson learned: Backup your photos immediately after capturing once-in-a-lifetime moments.

The NAS that held four generations of memories

A family stored their most precious memories - photos and home videos spanning four generations - on a multi-drive NAS system. It held everything from baby first steps to anniversary celebrations, vacations, and digitized home movies from old VHS tapes.
Then, the NAS failed without warning. Multiple drives had degraded, and the once-redundant RAID setup was no longer functional. The system refused to mount, and panic set in.

They brought the NAS to us, devastated by the potential loss of their digital legacy. Our engineers disassembled the system, imaged each drive individually, and used advanced RAID reconstruction techniques to virtually rebuild the array. After weeks of meticulous analysis and file system repair, we recovered nearly every photo and video - preserving irreplaceable, one-of-a-kind memories and a lifetime of cherished moments.

Lesson learned: Even RAID systems can fail. Always back up critical data off-site or in the cloud.

The life-saving medical data recovery

In some cases, data recovery goes beyond restoring lost documents - it can have life-or-death consequences. One of the most high-stakes cases we ever handled involved a local hospital hit by a ransomware attack, locking critical patient records, medical imaging files, and surgical schedules.
The hackers demanded an enormous ransom to restore access, threatening to delete the data permanently if the hospital didn’t pay. At this critical moment, the hospital turned to us. Working around the clock, we used forensic techniques to bypass the ransomware encryption and successfully restored access to all critical files - without paying the ransom. The hospital avoided paying the ransom, resumed normal operations, and protected patient privacy.

Lesson learned: Ransomware can happen to anyone. Always have secure, off-site backups that can’t be accessed by hackers, and implement strong cybersecurity measures to prevent attacks.

A piece of history, recovered

One of our most unique cases involved the recovery of a lost historical archive from World War II. An old film reel, stored in a military family’s attic for decades, had deteriorated to the point where it was unreadable. The film contained never-before-seen footage of wartime operations, and the family feared it was lost forever.

Through specialized digital restoration techniques, we carefully scanned the reel at a microscopic level, reconstructing the footage frame by frame. After months of painstaking work, we successfully restored several hours of historical footage, preserving a critical piece of history for future generations.

Lesson learned: Physical archives degrade over time. If you have old tapes, photos, or documents, consider digitizing them before time erases them completely.

The wildfire that couldn’t destroy a lifetime of work

When wildfires swept through California, a wildlife photographer lost everything - his home, equipment, and, most devastatingly, his entire archive of 20 years of wildlife photography. One of a few surviving pieces was a melted external hard drive that had somehow avoided the worst of the flames but was physically damaged and unreadable.
When he brought it to us, he had little hope. The outer casing was charred and warped, and the internal components were severely compromised. However, using clean room technology, we carefully transplanted the drive’s platters into a donor device, rebuilt the drive structure, and reconstructed the lost files. After extensive work, we recovered 85% of his life's work, including thousands of rare and irreplaceable photos of endangered species. Despite losing his home, he was able to rebuild his professional career with the recovered images.

Lesson learned: Natural disasters are unpredictable—always store backups off-site or in cloud storage.

even the “impossible” can be recovered.

Over the past 25 years, we’ve seen first-hand that data loss can be devastating. But these stories prove that there’s always hope. Whether it’s a once-in-a-lifetime memory, a critical business file, or a priceless piece of history, our expertise and cutting-edge technology have made the impossible, possible.

If you’ve lost something valuable, don’t lose hope. At Kotar Data Recovery, we make the impossible possible.