http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piWCBOsJr-w&feature=PlayList&p=86022E93977B3839&playnext=1&index=16
Posted on 02/26/2009 9:00:20 PM PST by Paleo Conservative
Last Friday morning when I got to the office, I found that my computer had the infamous Microsoft Blue Screen of Death. I tried rebooting, but the SCSI card got no response from my boot drive. This wasn't a huge problem, because I had already intended to upgrade my system drive and already had my data partitions copied to the new drive. After a little work I was able to restore a recent enough backup of my system drive to my new system drive and get the computer runing again.
My problem now is how do I destroy the data that still exists on the hard drive platters so they can't be read and recovered by anyone else even someone with access to a clean room who could fix the drive well enough to read any data that still exists on them. I've considered using my bulk eraser to erase the data that still exists and then using an electric drill to put holes in the platters.
Hoo boy! I didn’t know that they were that pervasive...
:-)
That's one way to do it. But really you should load it to another computer and use a wipe program with 15 passes minimum if you want to really ensure that it's gone.
Ummmm..., paranoia taking effect... LOL...
Well, depends on how crashed .... as in you can load it into another PC and it is a recognized drive?
If so, you can run undelete utilities on it but don't format or copy anything into it until you get everything off.
If it's still not recognized try slamming it sideways on the sidewalk ONCE. That might get it loose enough to load one last time.
If that doesn't work .... better pony up some cash because recovery by physical platters is not cheap.
You can build a ‘poor man’s clean room’ with an unused dry cleaning bag, a clean area and some tack cloth.
Step 1. Collect all the tools you will need and wash down the tools you can wash. It’s important to collect all your tools as adding tools later is problematic.
Step 2. Take a can of air an spray a small amount of dry clean air into the dry cleaning bag. You want all but one end air tight so you will need to tape up the hanger hole at the neck. Lay something long and narrow like a length of broom stick across the bag to seal in the clean air space. leave most of the bag un-inflated. Get extra bags.
Step 3. Put on fresh gloves, then hit the tools and the drive with the tack cloth and put them into the un-inflated part of the dry cleaner bag. Get as little air in the bag as possible, squeeze the air out from around the tools, then move the seal bar to the end of the bag, moving the clean air bubble to the tools and the tools and drive into the clean air bubble.
Viola, your tools and drive are in a poor mans clean room. Be careful not to rip the bag when using the tools.
Step 4. Fix drive...
(Step 5. Profit?)
This process will also likely render the drive completely unreadable so will serve both conversations going on this thread. Good fun all around.
Freezing a drive is particularly useful for clearing up ‘stickledge’ (where the head sticks to the platter.) It’s somewhat common after long times in storage. For these a ‘final’ casual attempt at fixing is to drop the drive about 1cm squarely onto the drives side. This is to break the adhesion between the head and the platter. Again these types of ‘fixes’ can wreck things worse then they fix. A one cm square drop ‘shouldn’t’ break the drive. Be careful, standing a drive on end and lengthwise and toppling it is enough to wreck it.
It worked for Vito when he whacked Fanucci.
Libyans....
THANK YOU for posting this, and look forward to the freeper’s responses.
My home computer hard drive crashed this week. It started out being REALLY slow to boot open. Then, each day, slower and slower. Then it just quit!!!
That’s okay, I have a laptop I am working on now. The problem is I lost all my email address book files, bookmarks I used for research, etc. Like a dummy I didn’t back up a lot of files I should have.
LESSON LEARNED — And as usual, the HARD way.
Makes me feel better to have company, knowing I am not the only one with a dead computer hard drive.
Heck, I miss it, the bookmarks, address book of ALL the people I need to email from time to time, including those involving my work, etc. I do also worry about how to dispose of this thing. I am computer illiterate, except for emailing my articles and surfing websites, freeping. I have used my personal financial info a few times to order something online.
I have a big firepit in my yard, and I may just burn it. But I sure would like to get some files off there first. I have nothing in it that would get me in trouble, just old articles I use for future reference for freelancing articles.
Most crashed hard drives have absolutely nothing wrong with the hard drive platters - it is just the drive controllers that have gone bad.
Your husband should be able to find software on the internet for free that basically bypasses the drive controller and reads the raw data. It's a slow process, but sure beats paying somebody $1,000 to do basically the same thing.
I've personally done this with hard drives that I've owned.
It doesn’t recognize the external drive at all? (vs. letting you select the folder but saying it’s ‘not a valid location.’) IIRC the wizard wants you to select a folder to restore from.
The wizard is the path to unpacking those .dat files. Your chances are much better then with recovering the original drive.
Changing the extension is unlikely to work. Third party unpackers might/will be able to unpack the .dat files (depending on how evil Balmer and Co are being lately.) Going that path leaves you to sort out the good data though, likely tedious.
Googling. (Finding a typical MS !@#$!%. !@$!@8# !@# unbelivable @#$` ~!# *&(% and their mother !#$!%(*7 &%*!%$ with a fork.)
From http://windowsxp.mvps.org/fast.htm
Check which version of MigWiz.exe you are using (vs. the version you used to back it up with). Check XP service packs (if you can remember when you backed up/check the .dat file date and if you were staying current you can infer which service pack you were at). If you have the old XP disk (presumably where you got the wizard when you backed up) try using it to restore (if you have a newer XP it’s version of the wizard is better etc but apparently not compatible).
Look at Rmv2opq and Fastconv. Good luck. It looks a mess.
If you consider ‘seeking professional help’ make sure you backup your backup (using good old fashioned file copies) before you let someone mess with it. There are many incompetents out there.
Buy some Coca-Cola and pour it in a bowl. Drop the dead drive in the bowl and let it sit for a few days. No one will ever be able to extract one bit of data from what’s left of that drive, ever.
SAFETY MESSAGE FOR IDIOTS: Don’t drink the coke after you soak a disk drive in it. Repeat, discard, do not drink the coke.
I miss MFM drives.
You could get those to spin with simple DC power.
Being larger (5.25) once uncovered and spinning they were cool to shoot.
Gotta figure out how to get a 10,000 rpm bare naked drive to spin in the woods. Perhaps a USB enclosure.
Check with your homeowner's or business insurance. You may already have insurance to cover the cost of recovering the data.
Infect it with syphillis and then leak the information that it it is a dirty whore.
ROTGLMAO!!
A 12 guage slug ahould do it!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.