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Data Recovered From Space Shuttle Columbia HDD

Posted by timothy on from the gary-sinise-was-not-involved dept.

WmHBlair writes "Data recovered from a 400MB Seagate hard drive carried on the Space Shuttle Columbia has been used to complete a physics experiment performed on the mission in space. The Johnson Space Center sent the recovered drive to Kroll Ontrack in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Considering the shape the drive was in (see picture in the linked article), it could indeed qualify for the 'most amazing disk data recovery ever.'" Update: 05/08 12:51 GMT by T : Reader lucas123 points out a piece at Computerworld with a series of photos of the recovered drive.

32 of 274 comments (clear)

  1. Yup... by Raineer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Data recovery has come a long way, keep this in mind when not using proper deletion techniques! Would have been nice to see a picture of the HDD though, to get a full understanding of the recovery.

    1. Re:Yup... by VMaN · · Score: 5, Informative

      Here is a picture for you:

      http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=hard-drive-recovered-from-columbia&sc=rss

      I'm pretty sure it's the one from the shuttle..

    2. Re:Yup... by Wrath0fb0b · · Score: 5, Informative
      There are a number of standards for secure deletion of magnetic media, but basically writing over it a few times with a random pattern should be sufficient. A lot of people claim that the Gutmann method is superior but that was based on an older encoding scheme that presupposed you knew about the physical layout of the data -- modern drives are permitted to shuffle your data however they want (e.g. sectors can be mapped arbitrarily to the physical platters). Gutmann himself no longer recommend his eponymous method:

      In the time since this paper was published, some people have treated the 35-pass overwrite technique described in it more as a kind of voodoo incantation to banish evil spirits than the result of a technical analysis of drive encoding techniques. As a result, they advocate applying the voodoo to PRML and EPRML drives even though it will have no more effect than a simple scrubbing with random data. In fact performing the full 35-pass overwrite is pointless for any drive since it targets a blend of scenarios involving all types of (normally-used) encoding technology, which covers everything back to 30+-year-old MFM methods (if you don't understand that statement, re-read the paper). If you're using a drive which uses encoding technology X, you only need to perform the passes specific to X, and you never need to perform all 35 passes. For any modern PRML/EPRML drive, a few passes of random scrubbing is the best you can do. As the paper says, "A good scrubbing with random data will do about as well as can be expected". This was true in 1996, and is still true now. Source: http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/secure_del.html, emphasis added.

      A good general explanation is given by the RCMP (what the hell mounties have to do with computers, like most of Canadian society, is entirely beyond me) http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/tsb/pubs/it_sec/g2-003_e.pdf

      If you have the practical need to nuke a drive, used DBAN: http://dban.sourceforge.net/
    3. Re:Yup... by jlindy · · Score: 4, Funny

      What are proper deletion techniques? 7 pass DoD... 35 pass Gutmann for the truly paranoid.
    4. Re:Yup... by Raineer · · Score: 5, Informative

      Here is a picture for you: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=hard-drive-recovered-from-columbia&sc=rss I'm pretty sure it's the one from the shuttle.. Thanks! And from that image it does not appear anything happened to the platters.
    5. Re:Yup... by dAzED1 · · Score: 5, Funny

      nothing happened to the platters...with the exception of the violent crash (head-to-platter damage) and, more importantly, the extreme heat.

      Short of that though, yeah - platters were just peachy.

    6. Re:Yup... by onescomplement · · Score: 5, Informative
      I've used OnTrack numerous times and they really know their stuff. I know there are other recovery services out there but these folks have earned my business.

      Basically, you pay a bench fee to get the drive examined, and then they send you the costs for recovery - for a desktop HD $500-$1500 depending on the problem. The cool part is that they send you a manifest of the recoverable files/directories so you can make an informed decision.

      And they _can_ perform miracles. Including dealing with bent platters. Just depends on what you want to pay.

      I must say it's been a great instructional tool for people who've neglected backups. They become wild operational militants after these episodes.

      Just remember that the ONLY way to ensure data cannot be recovered on a HD is to raise the drive temp past the Curie Point for the magnetics. (A charcoal BBQ works really well for this. Just pull the electronics and wrap the drive in heavy foil unless you like the smell of roasted phenolic.)

      Even if you "format" a drive it means that the waveforms coming off the heads can be interpreted as a certain, predictable value - but also remember that at root, it's an analog system and so artifacts from the prior contents are around, it's just a question of finding and interpreting them... That's why the DoD and other "erase" things are so comprehensive. Trying to obliterate all artifacts.

    7. Re:Yup... by bigredradio · · Score: 4, Informative

      You must be new here.

      --
      Flexible bare-metal recovery for Linux/UNIX
    8. Re:Yup... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      I saw them do it on CSI, and TV never lies.

    9. Re:Yup... by rthille · · Score: 5, Interesting


      I've got a friend/co-worker/gun-nut who never returns a drive with his data on it. Work gets laptops back, sans drives. He takes them out to the range with a high-powered rifle and puts rounds thru them.

      Me, I just use OS-X's write-random 7-times. But if blocks got remapped because of io-errors in the drive, that might be enough for the truely paranoid. If I were that, I'd use my oxy-acetylene torch and just melt the platters to slag, after pulling the magnets out to play with.

      --
      Awesome furniture, accessories and cabinetry in Santa Rosa, CA: http://humanity-home.com/
    10. Re:Yup... by avandesande · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think the burden of proof lays on the outrageous claim, not the reasonable assertion.

      --
      love is just extroverted narcissism
    11. Re:Yup... by Swampash · · Score: 5, Funny

      Here is a picture for you:

      http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=hard-drive-recovered-from-columbia&sc=rss

      No, I'm pretty sure that's just stock photography of an IBM Deskstar after one week of use.

    12. Re:Yup... by ColdWetDog · · Score: 5, Funny

      The picture *IS* the 400MB seagate drive. I can tell by the traces and the dimensions of the drive (which there is a ruler at the bottom of the image - it's not a 3.5" factor drive, it's 5.25")

      You can tell the make and model of a nearly completely trashed hard drive.

      I'm not sure whether I should be impressed or if I should merely feel sad for another wasted life ...

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  2. I've had some drives crash on me, but.. by catdevnull · · Score: 4, Funny

    I will probably never use the term "crash" to describe a hard drive failure again.

    I'll bet Ontrack made a fortune off of this recovery, too.

    --

    I might know what I'm talkin' about, but then again, this is Slashdot...
    1. Re:I've had some drives crash on me, but.. by theodicey · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Actually, they probably did it for next to nothing, anticipating all the free press coverage they would get. This very "press hit" on slashdot is a good example of what they were aiming at. (Although in this specific case, they deserve the good press they're getting.)

    2. Re:I've had some drives crash on me, but.. by joeytmann · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Ontrack has been doing this type of recovery for years. A couple of times I have asked for quotes, just to even look at the drive was like $1,000US. Can't remember how much it was per MB to retrieve the data. I know they have recovered data for machines lost in hurricane andrew, servers sitting in water for months. They were in Kuwait after the 91 gulf war recovering systems there. I think the only way to not have Ontrack recover a drive is to literally melt the platters.

      --
      Insert funny smart-ass comment here.
    3. Re:I've had some drives crash on me, but.. by bkr1_2k · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "Actually, they probably did it for next to nothing, anticipating all the free press coverage they would get. "

      Don't count on it. First off, they probably didn't even know if they could recover the data. Second, they would have no way of knowing for sure that NASA would release the information about them providing the data recovery services. Third, they very likely wouldn't have known whether or not the data (if recovered) would be used for anything in the future. Fourth, there are very strict rules about government agencies doing business where they don't pay for services, especially with potentially classified data on the drives.

      I would bet very strongly that they got well paid for this recovery.

      --
      "Growing old is inevitable; growing up is optional."
  3. Good thing, too! by greyspectre · · Score: 5, Funny

    Their server is shooting flames as I type this, but they have the technology to recover their site!

  4. Amazing data recovery! by InvisblePinkUnicorn · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wow! They recovered 400MB of data when all they had to work with was "500 Internal Server Error"?! Unbelievable!!!

  5. Preparing for slashdot effect by NeutronCowboy · · Score: 5, Funny

    So someone put together a story on spectacular hard disk failure, space shuttle, physic experiments and heroic success, and decided to host this on anything less than an industrial-strength web server? The only thing that could have made for a quicker or larger slashdotting would be if somehow it also involved big guns and Natalie Portman (with hot grits, petrified).

    Seriously people. Show some foresight here. At least the editors should have shown some mercy.

    Soooo.... anyone got a coral cache of it?

    --
    Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
  6. Re:Mounting Brackets by eln · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think when you're intending to launch something into space using a couple of giant rockets, you might be concerned about vibration shaking normal bolts loose.

    As for the condition of the drive, it's hard to say. The exterior was obviously fried, but it was still basically drive-shaped, and from the picture it's impossible to say how damaged the platters were. If the outside was messed up but the platters were still intact, I would think recovery would be fairly simple. Would have been nice to include a picture of the interior of the drive, or maybe even multiple pictures as they took it apart.

  7. another link by Bazards · · Score: 5, Informative

    Article on softpeida about it with pictures. http://news.softpedia.com/news/400-MB-Seagate-Drive-Survives-the-Columbia-Space-Shuttle-Disaster-84826.shtml

  8. workaround to get into this website to view it by PhreakOfTime · · Score: 4, Informative

    Almost looks like the site is denying visits when the referer is slashdot.org. With the below method, I was able to read the full article with no problems.

    To get in, simply copy the link in the story into a new browser window and hit enter to come into the site with no referers.

    Hope this helps

  9. Way to go guys (and gals) by smooth+wombat · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now look what you've done. Wasn't it bad enough the shuttle burned up? Now you've gone and burned up the server trying to show us pictures of the mangled hard drive from the burned up shuttle.

    --
    We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
  10. Re:First post by trolltalk.com · · Score: 4, Funny

    You call THIS "recovered"??? More like "Houston,we have a problem ..."

    Error Executing Database Query.
    Data source rejected establishment of connection, message from server: "Too many connections"

    The error occurred in /home/httpd/customtags/parameters.cfm: line 22
    20 :
    21 :
    22 :
    23 : SELECT tag, value FROM parameters
    24 :

    SQL SELECT tag, value FROM parameters
    DATASOURCE blocksandfiles
    VENDORERRORCODE 1040
    SQLSTATE 08004

    Resources:
    Check the ColdFusion documentation to verify that you are using the correct syntax.
    Search the Knowledge Base to find a solution to your problem.

    Browser Opera/9.23 (X11; Linux i686; U; en)
    Remote Address 70.49.63.152
    Referrer http://blocksandfiles.com/article/5056
    Date/Time 07-May-08 07:30 PM

    Stack Trace
    at cfparameters2ecfm1715857017.runPage(/home/httpd/customtags/parameters.cfm:22) at cfApplication2ecfm1592932022.runPage(/home/httpd/vhosts/blocksandfiles.co.uk/sitedocs/Application.cfm:17)

    com.mysql.jdbc.exceptions.MySQLNonTransientConnectionException: Data source rejected establishment of connection, message from server: "Too many connections"
            at com.mysql.jdbc.SQLError.createSQLException(SQLError.java:921)
            at com.mysql.jdbc.MysqlIO.doHandshake(MysqlIO.java:1055)
            at com.mysql.jdbc.Connection.createNewIO(Connection.java:2749)
            at com.mysql.jdbc.Connection.(Connection.java:1553)
            at com.mysql.jdbc.NonRegisteringDriver.connect(NonRegisteringDriver.java:285)
            at coldfusion.server.j2ee.sql.pool.JDBCPool.createPhysicalConnection(JDBCPool.java:562)
            at coldfusion.server.j2ee.sql.pool.ConnectionRunner$RunnableConnection.run(ConnectionRunner.java:67)
            at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:619)

    --
    Kevin Smith on Prince
  11. Wrong Shuttle or wrong image name? by Thornburg · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If this experiment was on Columbia, why is the image called "Challenger_drive.jpg"?

    Challenger was many years earlier...

  12. Mirror by trolltalk.com · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://www.networkmirror.com/N132udsTg07EUt3b/blocksandfiles.com/article/5056.html

    --
    Kevin Smith on Prince
  13. Re:Mounting Brackets by Smidge204 · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.sciam.com/media/inline/BAA76AE9-F23C-1819-08D80B3BC4D83163_2.jpg

    There we go
    =Smidge=

  14. What about the temperature of re-entry? by Weaselmancer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'd say that's the part that makes this impressive. Re-entry is known to be pretty darn warm. And heat will scatter magnetic domains. Heat up a magnet - it's not a magnet anymore.

    Either this HD was in the center of a ball of stuff and didn't get very hot, or Seagate has some seriously awesome engineering going on.

    --
    Weaselmancer
    rediculous.
  15. Link to xenon experiment's extract by jdmonin · · Score: 5, Informative

    For anyone curious about the actual experiment whose data was recovered:

    The abstract for the science experiment is at http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRE/v77/e041116 (or in the table of contents issue is http://scitation.aip.org/dbt/dbt.jsp?KEY=PLEEE8&Volume=77&Issue=4 ).

    "We measured shear thinning, a viscosity decrease ordinarily associated with complex liquids, near the critical point of xenon. The data span a wide range of reduced shear rate ... The measurements had a temperature resolution of 0.01 mK and were conducted in microgravity aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia to avoid the density stratification caused by Earth's gravity."

  16. Warranty Void by winphreak · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Product warranty is void if any seal or label is removed, or if drive experiences shock in excess of 350 Gs"

    --
    "I'm a well-wisher, in that I don't wish you any specific harm."
  17. Vibration degrades magnets by jake-in-a-box · · Score: 4, Funny

    I worked with hall-effect devices which we used to build tensiometers in the textiles industry. One of the problems we had was loss of sensitivity over time. The service lifetime of a unit was a year or so before it was returned to me for rebuild and recalibration. The reason was that the unit was used in an industrial setting with lots of vibration and noise. The magnets lost strength.

    All I had to do in many cases was to swap in a new set of magnets (and send the old ones out to be remagnetized). Then there were the clients that would turn the current up to compensate for the demagnetizing. They sent theirs back for a smoke refill after the smoke got out.

    --
    To hear the gods laugh tell them your plans.