All recent backups are gone or broken: only a year-old copy left
Not ideal, but not game over. A year-old copy at least rescues your structure, contracts and historical data. Acceptance is half the fight.
Try this first
- 1Freeze that year-old copy. Make a second copy of it immediately on another medium. A lost last copy is what you really do not want.
- 2Restore on separate hardware. Not on top of production. First see what you have, then decide what to do with live data.
- 3Inventory what changed since last year: new clients, new contracts, new staff. Which of those is not in this backup?
- 4Reconstruction of the gap: mailboxes, OneDrive, external systems (accounting cloud, CRM cloud). Often plenty is still there and you can piece together a workable whole.
When to bring us in
This is always a call moment, not DIY. We have done this trip before. A mix of data archaeology, customer/staff comms, and rebuild. Count on a week of work minimum.
See also
- We have backups but we do not know if they workA backup that cannot be restored is not a backup. Testing matters as much as taking the backup.
- Suspected ransomware: what to do RIGHT NOWThe first 30 minutes are critical. One wrong move spreads the damage. Read before acting.
- Someone accidentally deleted an important folderUsually fine to recover. The trick: do not save anything new on that drive until you know how.
None of the above fits?
Describe your situation below. We pass your input plus the steps you already saw to our AI and return tailored next-step advice. If it's too risky to DIY, we'll say so.
Or skip the DIY entirely
Our Managed IT clients do not look these things up. One point of contact, a fixed monthly price, resolved within working hours.