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What Not To Do With Your Data

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the do-not-put-in-mouth dept.

Tiny Tim writes "Stupidity strikes! A data recovery company has revealed the dumbest data disasters it's confronted this year — including rotting bananas, smelly socks and a university professor's foolhardy application of WD-40."

11 of 319 comments (clear)

  1. Privacy aspect by tomalpha · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What's interesting about this story is how easy it might be for *others* to recover your data after you think you've wiped it.

    1. Re:Privacy aspect by LordSnooty · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah - a chainsaw, a garbage compacter and a wood chipper. And a rocket to launch the fragments into space.

    2. Re:Privacy aspect by drinkypoo · · Score: 5, Funny
      Anybody know of any usefull tools to completely wipe the contents of a drive?

      Yes. I call it "thermite".

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re:Privacy aspect by Mawbid · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Heh, yeah. I remember when my company bought a hard drive (sold as new, not refurbished) with an ntfs partition on it and a whole lot of personal data. There were pictures of a father and his baby taking a bath. Awww, isn't that sweet?.

      I'm pretty sure the person who turned the disk in, if they thought about it at all, assumed that surely the shop would wipe the disk before reselling it. Well, clearly that's not something you can count on.

      --
      Fuck the system? Nah, you might catch something.
    4. Re:Privacy aspect by eam · · Score: 5, Informative

      http://www.semshred.com/contentmgr/showdetails.php /id/680/tp/VE1HUj0xLHRpZD02NzIs

  2. The real list by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The article is a summary of an advert. The original can be found here: http://ontrack.co.uk/special/data-disasters-2006.a spx?hp=Top10_2006

  3. Re:nonsense! by zhouray · · Score: 5, Funny

    Damn! Now I think of Steve Ballmer every time I see the word "squirt". =(

  4. STOP POSTING ADS by rbanzai · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "OnTrack claims it rescued the data in all cases. Jim Reinert, senior director of software and services for the company, said it pays to have your damaged hard drive or storage device evaluated because the chances of recovery are good."

    This "slashvertisement" crap has gone too far.

  5. Commonly by Himring · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The most common issue I've dealt with is jr techs deleting user profiles off xp boxes to "fix" something without first determining if there is any sensitive data in "my documents." Yes, generally -- although we tell users to put important stuff on network drives -- there are docs there that carry weight....

    I had a HD going bad once, with stuff on it I HAD to get off. I hooked it up and as it clicked and thumped and stopped spinning, I'd whack it with a flash light. This would make it spin and the copy would continue. After 30 minutes of beating it into submission, all data copied off successfully....

    I will tell this: one time we had a fire at a site. After all the damage cleaned up, machines replaced, etc., we were working with the maintenance guy who had been involved in the smoke cleanup, etc. The server was pretty messy. We were going to replace it, but he said, "no problem. Got it working." We asked what he did.

    He took the thing apart, apparently, and ran all pieces through the industrial dish washer -- all the but the harddrive. He let dry thoroughly, put all back together, and it worked. We were dumb-founded....

    --
    "All great things are simple & expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." --Churchill
  6. Re:The perfect secret weapon! by GammaKitsune · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is that a banana in your server or are you just happy to see me?

    --
    Gamertag: WyleType
  7. N00bkes by SuperStretchy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Thats why I use the Microwaved-Hard-Drive method. It works! Mostly because you can't find the HD amidst the smoldering ruins of the house.