KEEP it wet - that's the advice from data recovery experts should your thumb drive drop in any liquid.

But send it in for rescue work as soon as possible.

That's contrary to conventional wisdom. Drying will do more harm than good to the data stored, say data recovery experts.

Minerals, when crystallised on metal parts, may be hard to remove later. Should the data chip be corroded or encrusted with stubborn dirt, no amount of rescue work might help.

The same goes if you have absent-mindedly put your shirt - along with the thumb drive - into the washing machine.

In Digital Life's experiment, Adroit Data Recovery Centre was able to rescue 100 per cent of the files stored in the thumb drives dunked in water and coffee - and it did that in less than two hours.

When the devices reached Adroit's labs at Science Park, engineers opened up the external casing and began washing the inside with clean tap water.

The devices were then blown dry in a clean lab with ionised air jets. Another round of cleaning was done using volatile solvent to remove any traces of dirt and stain.

The drives were then tested for electrical component failure. Several transistors had to be replaced before they could work again.

When they finally passed the electrical component test, the drives were plugged into a computer to copy the data stored.

Electrical testing is important because if any faulty electrical part was not replaced, the device will short-circuit, causing the internal data chip to burn.

And if that happens, information would not be recoverable.

The type of liquid your thumb drive drops into also matters.

Corrosive substances like salt water, fire extinguishers and acid will cause an irreversible chemical reaction on the metal parts. Just three days is all it takes for your data to be as dead as the device.

Oil-based substances are more forgiving.

Like Adroit, Kroll Ontrack was also able to recover 100 per cent of all data in both the water- and coffee-drowned thumb drives.

This story was first published in The Straits Times Digital Life on 27 May 2008.