Re: What about OLD computers??

[Dossy Shiobara <dossy -at- panoptic -dot- com>]

Sandy Harris wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 2, 2008 at 2:03 AM, Downing, David <DavidDowning -at- users -dot- com> wrote:
> 
>> Actually, FWIW, it _is_ actually possible (and not just theoretically,
>> but has actually been performed) to recover data even after perturbing
>> it with a large magnet and/or writing over the data many times.
>>
>> -----------------------------------------------------
>>
>> How is this possible, once the data has actually been scrambled with a
>> magnet or completely written over with 0s and 1s?
> 
> See the Gutmann paper, citation in my earlier post.
> 

Also, for those who advise people "just drill some holes" through the
platter - with the increase in drive density, even a 1 sq. cm section of
platter can contain many megabytes of data - enough to store an entire
(defragmented) sensitive document.

For truly sensitive data, melting it into slag is the only known secure
way of destroying magnetic data.

This isn't merely theoretical speculation or scare tactics: people have
demonstrated reasonable recovery procedures already.

-- 
Dossy Shiobara              | dossy -at- panoptic -dot- com | http://dossy.org/
Panoptic Computer Network   | http://panoptic.com/
  "He realized the fastest way to change is to laugh at your own
    folly -- then you can let go and quickly move on." (p. 70)
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