[Tfug] Destroying a hard drive

[Bexley Hall]

--- Rich <r-lists at studiosprocket.com> wrote:

> On Sep 8, 2007, at 5:22 pm, keith smith wrote:
> 
> > This guys says if you remove the spindle and
> platters your drive  
> > will never be recoverable.
> For casual recovery, yes. But it's my understanding
> that forensics  
> labs remove the platters to recover data in the most
> extreme cases.
> 
> It makes sense: If a drive is shocked hard enough,
> the bearings will  
> be screwed up anyway, the spindle might get a flat
> on it. Either way,  
> the platters are no longer centered properly.
> Platters are balanced  
> discs, so finding the center of gravity is the key
> to finding the  
> axis around which the tracks are written. Once you
> have that, you own  
> the data.

I would imagine this is done *optically*.
E.g., some sort of agent is applied to the media
to highlight the magnetic domains.  Then, they
are photographed.  I'm sure (assuming this is
how it is done) the resulting data shows nice,
pretty concentric circles that a machine can easily
"fit a curve to", etc.

E.g., this is how it was done with mag tape
years ago.  Likewise, credit cards can be "read"
this way.


       
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