How does a lab recover hard drive data

[Baddog]

How does a lab recover hard drive data (and I don't mean a dog).

I was wondering what software , processes,and devices.

[mireland]

Originally posted by Baddog
How does a lab recover hard drive data (and I don't mean a dog).

I was wondering what software , processes,and devices.

Kinda curious about that myself. I heard something about them dismantling the hard drive and taking the platters and putting them in another drive or something..that's all I heard

[cwin]

Originally posted by mireland
Kinda curious about that myself. I heard something about them dismantling the hard drive and taking the platters and putting them in another drive or something..that's all I heard

Odd as it may be, thats what i think they do!
It needs to be in a vacuum tho, with no foreign particles such as dust. Very precise working too... ill try and find the diagram i saw once

[cwin]

[Baddog]

Originally posted by cwin


Odd as it may be, thats what i think they do!
It needs to be in a vacuum tho, with no foreign particles such as dust. Very precise working too... ill try and find the diagram i saw once

If dust is so bad, how could a CD be read

[cwin]

cds are a different technology... optical is more tolerant
ever wondered why a slight knock can break a HDD? or that it is so tightly sealed!!

[chubtub]

Like this

http://www.datadocktorn.nu/us_frag1.php

Ok it is an obvious joke, but I could not help myself.

[rraehal]

Nice gentel way to learn how to destroy a disc. thanks chubtub.

My understanding of data recovery is similar to the above.

They take it apart and use special equipment in a clean room to read the 1's and 0's on the disc and recreate data.

I am not sure what the equipment is, most likly a machine that rotates the platters at the correct speed with a head that can read data just like the hard disk itself. Once the data has been read, it can be reconstructed. The software is unknoiwn to me. If I remember correctly, Micro2000 puts out some products to do this without special hardware.

[chubtub]

Last that I heard it was a couple thousand or more to have a disk recovered in this fashion.

[rangeral]

Some software will dig down thru 4 or 5 formats to get the data which is probably what they do first off, but you could also get some of this software yourself, theres plenty of data recovery apps out there for the depth of your pocket.

If its worse than that then the first thing you need before deconstructing is "a white coat".

[rraehal]

Originally posted by rangeral
Some software will dig down thru 4 or 5 formats to get the data which is probably what they do first off

Most version of Ghost come with GDISK. You can use GDISK DISK# /DODWIPE

This will zero the drive 7 times. It effectively erases all data on the disc. Obviously DOD means department of defense so 7 wipes is acceptable cleaning for secure data according to the DOD.

[Swordfish]

this was once shown on clickonline(on BBC), the labs where the recovery was being done, actually replaced the circuit below the damaged hdd/platters with a brand new one which was taken from the exact same model. The heads where also replaced with a brand new one and then repositioned...i dunno how they did that.

if you browse you may get the real video version for viewing the episode....the only thing is i have no idea in which episode they gave the details.

[Baddog]

A few links for those that really have to have their data back:


Commercial recovery software list.

R-Studio

http://www.r-tt.com

Disk Commander

http://www.winternals.com/products/repairandrecovery/ diskcommander.asp

File Rescue 2.5

http://www.file-rescue.com

GetDataBack for FAT GetDataBack for NTFS

http://www.runtime.org

Norton Utilities/SystemWorks

http://www.symantec.com

Undelete

http://www.executive.com/consumer/undelete/undelete.asp

Hard Drive Mechanic

http://www.highergroundsoftware.com/6.html
http://www.highergroundsoftware.com/downloads2.htm

Back2Life

http://www.simtel.net/pub/pd/57588.html

DFSee/

http://www.dfsee.com

Fast File Recovery

http://savemyfiles.com/fastfile.htm

Undelete 3.0

http://www.pcconnection.com/scripts/ productdetail.asp?product_id=309884

Active UNERASER

http://www.uneraser.com/undelete.htm

File Scavenge

http://www.quetek.com/prod02.htm

File Restore

http://www.winternals.com/products/repairandrecovery/ filerestore.asp

File Recover 2000 /

http://www.filerecover.com

Undelete

http://www.quantumsoft.co.uk/undelete.stm

Fast File Undelete

http://www.dtidata.com/products_ff_undelete.asp

Data Recovery

http://www.dtidata.com

For NTFS

http://www.restorer2000.com/r2k.htm

[Jonathan Daleo]

This is all scary stuff

You guys mean to tell me that even after a reformat of a HDD and

reinstallation of Windows that data from a previous installation

can still be retrieved.

If this is the case, is there any way one can rid a HDD of ALL info

so that it can NEVER be retrieved again.

Someone please enlighten me.

Thank You

[sm8000]

Wipes or zero-fills will do it (eliminate all but very slimmest chance of data recovery). Hard drive makers have utilities that'll do a zero-fill for their drives on their websites. A zero-fill means that every sector is overwritten with a zero, unlike formatting with DOS or Windows where they're simply labeled "deleted" but it's still there until that spot on the platter is overwritten. DOD's standard, as noted above, is to wipe seven times.