Certified ISO Class 5 Cleanroom
During the recovery process, data recovery engineers open each storage device to inspect for physical damage and repair delicate components. Tiny airborne particles can accumulate on the open hard disk drive (HDD) platters, causing read-write heads to malfunction and damage the platter surfaces. When this happens, valuable data could be lost forever.
To protect drives and data from contaminants, DriveSavers performs all HDD hard drive recoveries in a Certified ISO Class 5 Cleanroom environment.
The most technologically advanced data recovery clean environment in the industry, it features a 975 square foot Certified ISO Class 5 (Class 100), an ISO 8 (Class 100,000) clean zone for our inventory of 20,000 parts and drives and a triage area where the exterior of all devices are wiped free of contaminants and debris prior to entering the cleanroom.
The Certified ISO Class 5 Cleanroom allows DriveSavers to open sealed drive mechanisms in accordance with all leading hardware and storage device manufacturers’ specifications without voiding the hard drive’s original warranty.
Cleanroom Features
- Conforms to International Cleanroom Standards: Includes ISO14644-1:2015
- Class 1-compatible construction materials: The Cleanroom is made of non-shedding, corrosion-resistant and low outgassing materials to minimise the introduction of AMC (airborne molecular contamination) into the room.
- 33 full-coverage ionising blowers above workstations: Ensure control of ESD (electrostatic discharge) in all critical areas of the cleanroom.
- Strict air contamination control: Filtered air space contains less than 100,000 particles per cubic foot at 0.1 microns or larger. (A non-controlled environment can have as many as 1 billion particles of this size in a cubic foot.)
About ISO Certification
To receive ISO 14644-1 certification, a company must be audited for adherence to standards in the following areas:
- Operational systems
- Selection and use of cleanroom garments
- Training and monitoring of personnel and activities
- Installation and use of equipment
- Requirements for materials used in the cleanroom
- Confirmation of the cleanroom’s environment to design standards
Note that there are 3 different occupancy states allowed for cleanroom certification:
- As-built: “condition where the installation is complete with all services connected and functioning but with no production equipment, materials or personnel present”
- At-rest: “condition, where the installation is complete with equipment installed and operating in a manner, agreed upon by the customer and supplier but with no personnel present”
- Operational: “condition, where the installation is functioning in the specified manner, with the specified number of personnel present and working in the manner, agreed upon”
DriveSavers always chooses to undergo ISO certification audit while our cleanroom is operational. This ensures that the air quality during your hard drive recovery matches that shown in the certification paperwork. “Operational” status is reflected in our ISO compliance certificate.
Hard disk drives (HDDs) are only opened inside of our Certified ISO Class 5 Cleanroom. An ISO Class 5 standard allows for no more than 100,000 particles greater than .1 microns in size per cubic meter. For reference, there are 1,000 microns in a millimeter. Divide a millimeter by 10,000 and you have .1 microns
When choosing a data recovery service, always ask to view their Cleanroom certification. Check that it is certified to an ISO 14644-1 standard and that they have at least one ISO Class 5 area. Be sure to find the “occupancy state” and notice if it is noted as “as-built”, “at-rest” or “operational.”
