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Tip: Work with your vendor to expand your warranties to include lost data

EHR Connection, May 21, 2007

Most hardware vendors of workstations and laptops provide warranties for only the hardware. For example, if a hard drive crashes, the warranty does not cover data loss despite the fact that this loss can cause damage to the organization and cost valuable staff time attempting to recover lost data.

Dell, as an example, will act promptly to replace failed hardware covered by warranty. However, it provides no warranties regarding the data and does not even offer services (paid or free) to assist an organization in recovering lost data. This is true of most hardware vendors.

Organizations should work with hardware vendors to expand warranty coverage to include data recovery services and provisions to assist in covering costs associated with data loss. This is something hardware vendors are reluctant to do, given the potentially significant costs associated with data recovery. The bottom line is that it is very important to conduct a thorough review of the warranties associated with any hardware you purchase to store confidential or mission-critical data.

In addition to not providing any protections against lost data, there are generally no guarantees that the hardware vendor will appropriately dispose of data stored on failed hardware devices.

Editor's note: Chris Apgar, president of Portland, OR-based Apgar & Associates, LLC provided this tip.

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