Data Recovery included in my home owner's coverage?

[gkisystems]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Wisconsin.

My house was hit by lightning. My desktop computer and Network Attached Storage (NAS) drive were both damaged by the lightning and do not power on. My insurance company has reimbursed me for the cost to buy a new computer, a new NAS drive, and the cost to buy a lost Microsoft Office license product key that was on the hard drive of the desktop computer (about $1,200 worth for all 3). They also replaced 2 computer monitors worth about $800 total.

Now, I need to get my data recovered from my PC’s hard drive and my NAS drive. The estimated cost of data recovery service is about $6,000 for both drives. The data that needs to be recovered includes tax documents, business documents, receipts, photos, movies, music files, letters, and various other intellectual property.

QUESTION: Is the cost of data recovery service covered by my insurance policy and if so, is the coverage limited by section 10 or 12 of my policy? If yes it is covered and yes it is limited, how would the limits apply in this circumstance?

The relevant coverage information in my policy is as follows:

We cover personal property owned by or used by any insured anywhere in the world. The following special limits apply to certain categories of personal property. These limits do not increase the Coverage B limit shown in the Declarations. Each limit below is the total limit for each loss for all property in that category:

(10) $5,000 on electronic data processing equipment and the recording or storage software used with such equipment. The recording or storage software will be covered only up to:

(a) The retail value of the software, if pre-programmed; or
(b) The retail value of the software in blank or unexposed form, if blank or self-programmed;

(12) $1,200 on any one item for loss by sudden and accidental damage from artificially generated electrical currents. This does not include electronic data processing equipment or the recording or storage software used with that equipment.

 

[FlyingRon]

It doesn't sound like it to me. What it's saying is that they'll cover your media and software that may have been on it (i.e., they'll buy you a new copy of Microsoft Word or whatever) but don't see anything about recovering your other files.

I would put a lighting strike on the "naturally generated" category so section 12 there isn't an issue. I lost everything that was connected to my phone lines when lightning struck (which was pretty much just my cordless phone base station and my DSL modem). The phone company gave me a new modem (actually I have a stack of them as their solution to any service complaint for a while was to send me another router/modem). The insurance company paid for the phone and also for my well pump (to the tune of $7000).

 

[gkisystems]

It doesn't sound like it to me. What it's saying is that they'll cover your media and software that may have been on it (i.e., they'll buy you a new copy of Microsoft Word or whatever) but don't see anything about recovering your other files.

I would put a lighting strike on the "naturally generated" category so section 12 there isn't an issue. I lost everything that was connected to my phone lines when lightning struck (which was pretty much just my cordless phone base station and my DSL modem). The phone company gave me a new modem (actually I have a stack of them as their solution to any service complaint for a while was to send me another router/modem). The insurance company paid for the phone and also for my well pump (to the tune of $7000).

Any thoughts on this?

http://www.rkmc.com/~/media/PDFs/Emerging%20Law%20on%20Electronic%20Data%20Insurance.pdf

 

[TheGeekess]

The HDDs can be removed them from the PC/NAS, and placed in a portable case; if the HDDs spin up, data can be accessed that way. Your local computer tech should be able to check that for you.

 

[justalayman]

Of course you simply access your offsite data back-up and dump it on the new storage hardware.


You do have offsite back-up of all your data...right? Right?


or at least independent back ups of your data stored in a fire safe or some such, right? right?

 

[PaulMass]

Of course you simply access your offsite data back-up and dump it on the new storage hardware.


You do have offsite back-up of all your data...right? Right?


or at least independent back ups of your data stored in a fire safe or some such, right? right?

I'm curious to know why you think OP has backups. OP is here talking about data recovery. People don't normally need data recovery when they can simply access their offsite data backup.

Or maybe you just like kicking people when they're down. (seems pretty rampant on this site)

 

[justalayman]

I'm curious to know why you think OP has backups. OP is here talking about data recovery. People don't normally need data recovery when they can simply access their offsite data backup.

Or maybe you just like kicking people when they're down. (seems pretty rampant on this site)

Duh!!!

I know he didn't have back ups. My post was meant to make the statement he should have back ups of all important data. If he gets his data back, hopefully the tongue in cheek post of mine will spur him to start backing up his data and store it offsite or in a fire safe.

Are you always this droll?

 

[TheGeekess]

I'm curious to know why you think OP has backups. OP is here talking about data recovery. People don't normally need data recovery when they can simply access their offsite data backup.

Or maybe you just like kicking people when they're down. (seems pretty rampant on this site)

No, but best recommended practice is to keep a backup of all your important files and data off-site. Thumbdrives and blank DVDs are inexpensive compared to what OP is going to have to do. I don't like cloud computing (I thought we left dumb terminals behind 30 years ago), but even that is better than nothing.

 

[cbg]

60 bucks a year and Carbonite has rescued my husband's files twice in the past six weeks.

 

[quincy]

... Or maybe you just like kicking people when they're down. (seems pretty rampant on this site)

I think that if gkisystems thought he would not get good advice on this forum, he would not have returned over the course of nine years to create 35 threads and amass 272 posts.

As an aside, my favorite gkisystems' thread was the "lemon sectional" one - I still laugh every time I read cbg's post.

 

[gkisystems]

I think that if gkisystems thought he would not get good advice on this forum, he would not have returned over the course of nine years to create 35 threads and amass 272 posts.

As an aside, my favorite gkisystems' thread was the "lemon sectional" one - I still laugh every time I read cbg's post.

I got the state consumer protection bureau involved and that encourgae the store to work with me. They took my old couch back and gave me store credit to buy a new one, so I did. Then the store went out of business a month later. Now I have a new couch with more problems. Two lemons in a row made by completely different manufacturers. Maybe I just need to buy some big rocks for my living room to sit on.

As for data backup, I have a cloud service but it stopped updating for some reason so it doesn't have my new data.

 

[PaulMass]

I re-read your original post.

You wrote that your computer and NAS won't power on. I believe there is a very good possibility that the hard drives inside those devices were NOT damaged, but the power supply (first thing in line from the power cord) and/or motherboards (second thing in line) are likely the cause of the failures.

You should be able to find someone to remove the drives and copy the data to another medium for way less than $6,000. The data recovery you are looking into is generally for damaged hard drives. There is a chance the drives are damaged as well, as they also plug into the power supply, but I'd wager they are not. (I would not wager my life savings, but some smaller amount).

You can probably take the drive out of the desktop, install it into an external USB case, and access it as an external drive. The NAS drives may be more difficult, as they are likely part of a RAID array, and may be odd filesystems.

You may be able to pick up an identical NAS unit from ebay and just swap the drives.

 

[TheGeekess]

I re-read your original post.

You wrote that your computer and NAS won't power on. I believe there is a very good possibility that the hard drives inside those devices were NOT damaged, but the power supply (first thing in line from the power cord) and/or motherboards (second thing in line) are likely the cause of the failures.

You should be able to find someone to remove the drives and copy the data to another medium for way less than $6,000. The data recovery you are looking into is generally for damaged hard drives. There is a chance the drives are damaged as well, as they also plug into the power supply, but I'd wager they are not. (I would not wager my life savings, but some smaller amount).

You can probably take the drive out of the desktop, install it into an external USB case, and access it as an external drive. The NAS drives may be more difficult, as they are likely part of a RAID array, and may be odd filesystems.

You may be able to pick up an identical NAS unit from ebay and just swap the drives.

Gee, I think I said the SAME THING in POST #8.

 

[FlyingRon]

His question was "DOES MY INSURANCE COVER IT" and based on the snippet of the policy, my answer is NO. They'd cover the cost of the computer and the installed software but not any services to recover any informations.

As to "what's wrong with my computer," "how should I have prevented it," "what do I do to recover my files," etc... Those aren't legal questions and there are tons of computer forums out there. My money is on the power supply to if the thing is 100% non-responsive. In fact, I suspect that you can probably visually find the issue within a few inches of where the power cord connects. The first thing (after the fuse) is typically a diode which blows to protect the fuse.