Recovering Data From Broken Hard Drives and SSDs (Video)

Russell Chozick owns a small company in Austin. TX, called Flashback Data that recovers data from messed-up hard drives. And SSDs and Flash memory, too. How badly damaged does a drive have to be to defeat Russell and his crew? Apparently, smashed to bits. Not long aqo we did a video about a company that destroys data on hard drives, and we've had at least one Ask Slashdot where the question was, "What's the Best Way To Destroy Hard Drives?" In today's video, Russell is talking about the opposite of destruction -- except that he destroys data upon request, too. Obviously, checking the wrong box on a customer order form could cause big problems at Flashback Data, couldn't it? Let's hope they never do that -- and let's hope we all back up all of our data so we never need to use a data recovery service. You do back up all your data, don't you?

Comments

BS Summary

[gweihir]

Do one overwrite with zeros for magnetic media. They cannot recover that. Open the drive, take out the platters, bend or break them, they cannot recover that. SSDs are more tricky, but one overwrite with random data assures that no more than the spare capacity can be recovered.

Re:BS Summary

[SuricouRaven]

You're close. Overwriting media with zeros almost entirely erases everything - there was a time when it was possible for someone with a highly specialised magnetic probe to pick up leftover traces from the space between the tracks, but modern drives have the tracks far too close for that. There is just one place data may survive: Remapped sectors. The drive logic does detect if a sector is going to fail or already failed, and if so will remap it to a spare area, just as SSDs do. The old data gets left behind in the now-disused space.

But all that'll save is the odd little fragment here and there, either 512 bytes or 16k depending on the drive. An attacker would need a lot of luck to find something good in there.

Re:BS Summary

[K. S. Kyosuke]

"Using quantum detection for variations in the strength of the magnetic field (government level equipment) can detect multiple layers."

This sounds like total bullshit to me. We already have to use heavy error-correcting codes on pretty much all modern media to read even the last thing you wrote on them. What makes you think that whatever residual magnetism remains after a mere zeroing (although I'd opt for /dev/urandom instead) is sufficient to restore whatever had been written on it before that?

Re:BS Summary

[Anonymous Coward]

Do one overwrite with zeros for magnetic media. They cannot recover that

For those that don't believe it:

Assume, for argument's sake, that one could recover one previous generation of data written to magnetic media after an single overwrite. That means a nominal 1TB drive could be used to store 2TB of data. The fact that no hard drive manufacturer has been able to take advantage of any hysteresis effect to increase their storage densities is a strong indication that it's not possible.

http://xkcd.com/808/

Speaking of Recovering Things

[pitchpipe]

Does this company offer a way to recover a Slashdot that doesn't disguise advertising as a story?

Re:Advertisement within an advertisement?

[EmagGeek]

Just curious, why did you attempt to obscure the word "SHIT" in your post?

Just say it. SHIT. It's a wonderful, useful word, just like FUCK, HELL, TITS, ASS, CUNT, DICK, and so many others that describe Slashdot and those who make it yet another newsvertisement site.

WTF? I thought I had ads diabled??

[gweihir]

Why is this stupid marketing BS still displayed?