Leosghost - 12:58 am on May 9, 2009 (gmt 0)

@ henryO .."salut Henry"...( and anyone else who wants to know how to do it right) drill 2 holes ( right through and out the other side )..one at the end furthest away from the circuit board and one at the side nearest it ..both must pass through the HD discs..then submerge in bucket of hydrochloric ( at 1 mol ) acid for 24 hours ..then submerge in bucket of sulphuric acid ( also at 1 mol )..3 days ..sleep easy :)..and if it makes you sleep any easier then run an oxy torch or a thermic lance over the thing but it's overkill

with respects to various posters above ..there is an awfull lot of "batmans belt" syndrome in this thread ..

and we've been over this bone here before ' bout 3 years back ..nothing in "spinning" HD tech has changed since enough since then to change squat from what we knew then ..which is what I posted then ( and I think so did kaled and bill and "2" and "others" ..and some of them didn't use the same names as they do now ;)..and again now ..

solid drives ..discs ..thumb drives etc ( all of your "boot it live" " stuff be it doze ( any flavour ) ..or any "nix" or "nux" ..( I, like many here have bunch of 'em , ranging from 4 gigs to 64 gigs ..plus a light weight "netbook" to help them talk to unsecured networks and wi-fi points if needed ) ..can "kill" any key beyond all hopes of ressurection by dropping it into a 'lil' bottle of acid that sits in your pocket and is no risk to you ( quick method ) ..and a plumbers propane torch or a solid state camping stove or even at pinch a zippo and a pair of improvised tongs will "kill" all ..

Since joining WebmasterWorld ...I made ( amongst others ..'aint getting any younger ..so diversifying what I could sell on ..sort of like pubcon or crawl wall ..you realize that you know stuff that others dont ..or that they dont know how to market ) a "side business" in data recovery ..( stuff that people or businesses need to get back from their machines or cards or cameras or thumb drives or whatever )..so.

you cant read cluster tip data from melted or acid dipped storage ..except if the container responds to "Arnie" in the movies.

that said ..

I have many hard drives ..with all kinds of left on them "confidential" data ( Lan guys or in house IT dept folks ) who thought that software that "7" wipes and you were done ..that are full of data that I should n't be able to read ..mostly government stuff ..machines bought off Ebay from companies who buy it in bulk from the governement when the depts "upgrade" ..and the staff people are too busy rolling out all the new machines and the associated software to "kill" every old machine ..so health records legal , papers and internal government memos etc stay on old drives ..not even a basic format ( which does nothing to stop the inquisitive but at least shows that the IT dept knew what "format" meant ) ..even had "sensitive" stuff show up ..we tell the "powers" ..what we got ..they are shocked ..they will "fix it" ..they are effusive with their thanks ..presumably they then talk to their IT contractors ..and the next batch we get has still more stuff that should have been left on it ..

*****and this is without counting the machines which show up at the local municipal dumps ( with whom I negociated a recycling deal )..old RAM is more expensive than new RAM and some people .."me" and others collect old machines ..pcs and macs etc ..and need parts ..*****

the dump is ..where the local plumbers and carpenters etc who all have local "IT" specialist companies ( who mainly sell them a new machine and new accountancy software every 24 months ) ..go to dump their machines which they have been told are "obselete" and they can replace as business expense ..so "dump it" ..and they do dump it .. with all their accounts still on it ..and frequently their pron surfing history too ..with their names and addresses and all one would need to make their lives misery and or steal their identities their bank account details ..tax returns etc etc ..

ditto the machines dumped by private citizens ..especially the pron and the banks details ..left when they "upgrade" ..or when they worry about their wives seeing their surf history ..lot of recent machines hit the trash that way ..

only ever found one instance of child pron on a machine 'til now ...and it was reported ( as per our TOS which customers sign to before we "recover" )to friends in the local ( french ) police unit specialised in "protections des mineurs"..( watching out for kids ) ..it was cloned ( in case static zapped it's board as we took it out took it out and made it harder to read in depth )..and then we gave the guy a new HD ..put his other data back ..and took away the evidence .

the business man was totally innocent ( actually thought that his bass sub woofer box ..was his hard drive !..had bought the computer and it's net access on the recommendation of his accountant ..this was year 2002 ..)..but his accountant had been using his bosses machine to do his "research" ..and had actually used his own name to sign up to the illegal sites " named cookie traces and all " ..and he had then formatted the HD ..and then told the business man he had a virus in an email ...and the machine was scrap ..
soi before it was "scrapped" we were asked to take a look at it ..

rolled back the format ..and looked for what had happened..expecting klezH or similar ..

evidence took 5 minutes to get ..and I wasnt even looking for it ..just a lot of jpegs in the recycle made me wonder ..recovery showed them for what they were ..
Our TOS says that if we find Kpron ..or "similar" we make a call and the first call is not to the client ..

confidentiality? ..

I am not a lawyer ..so our TOS ( written by lawyers ) says what we do keep to ourselves and what we dont ..

plus ..I have a son ( at that time he was 4 years old ) now 16 ..would be the same TOS if I had a daughter..

some companies TOS are closer to those of lawyers or doctors ..I dont need money so bad as to have their kind of TOS ..

apologies ..long post ..mais ..subject has many ramifications ..legal ( depending on which juristictions apply where you are or where you are "incorporated" ), moral , ethical , technical abilities ..or developments etc