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Recovering Data From Broken Hard Drives and SSDs (Video)

Posted by Roblimo on from the after-the-sledgehammer-falls dept.

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?

8 of 173 comments (clear)

  1. BS Summary by gweihir · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

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    1. Re:BS Summary by CanHasDIY · · Score: 5, Funny

      Thermite, like duct tape, is the solution to damn near everything.

      Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some men in black suits and dark glasses at my door, and I think they want to talk to me....

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    2. Re:BS Summary by blueg3 · · Score: 5, Informative

      you can recover 1 overwrite actually....

      You cannot. Or rather:
      * Nobody has ever demonstrated success of recovering data from a modern hard drive (anything more recent than MFM) that has been overwritten even one time.
      * The person who wrote the paper on recovering data from drives after erasure, Gutmann, has said there is no reason to believe that it is possible with modern drives.
      * Other people have a quite sound theoretical arguments that it is impossible. (That is, there is a hysteresis effect, but it is so small compared to noise that the statistical probability of getting correct data instead of random data is much, much too small to be of any practical use even in a best-case scenario.)

      This is a myth in computer forensics and security that needs to die.

    3. Re:BS Summary by xtracto · · Score: 5, Funny

      Nice try NSA guy.

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  2. Speaking of Recovering Things by pitchpipe · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

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    Look where all this talking got us, baby.
  3. Re:Advertisement within an advertisement? by EmagGeek · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  4. WTF? I thought I had ads diabled?? by gweihir · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why is this stupid marketing BS still displayed?

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  5. Re:Slashdot is vulnerable and should be updated by ArcadeMan · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe you haven't updated Firefox in a while. Are you still using yesterday's version?

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