Lost Bitcoins Man is still trying

Probably making a few £ off of the publicity, knowing full well it's unlikely going to happen and it'll never be found. This story keeps popping up again every 12 months or less, this time offering to buy the tip :D .
 
After all this time you have to wonder at the miniscule chances of any data being readable in the slightest.

Time, magnetic field degradation of a HDD that's not been powered up, environmental conditions

It'll be dead.
 
adidan said:
After all this time you have to wonder at the miniscule chances of any data being readable in the slightest.

Time, magnetic field degradation of a HDD that's not been powered up, environmental conditions

It'll be dead.
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Pretty sure the Data Recovery firm working with him said they have done similar before and that's why they will take a chance.
 
SexyGreyFox said:
Pretty sure the Data Recovery firm working with him said they have done similar before and that's why they will take a chance.
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was it a HDD though? or is he talking about this... basically a flight recorder/Blackbox

bringingcolumbiahome.wordpress.com

Columbia’s “Black Box”

NASA established a list of “hot items” that it most wanted to find in the search and recovery of Columbia’s debris. Many of these items were memory devices, items that might conta…
bringingcolumbiahome.wordpress.com bringingcolumbiahome.wordpress.com

Gudh2Yr.jpeg



oh wait seems it really was a HDD
www.networkcomputing.com

NASA's Hard-Drive Miracle

Five years on, NASA recovers hard-drive data from the Columbia disaster
www.networkcomputing.com www.networkcomputing.com

Kroll Ontrack engineer Jon Edwards told the Associated Press that, although about half of the drive had been damaged, virtually all of the data was on the undamaged half.

Somewhat fortuitously, the astronauts had been using DOS, which does not scatter data throughout the drive.
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so that doesn't even count for modern drives?

even if you defrag theres no garuntee all the files are near each other? and the file is so small it could be almost anywhere on the platter anyway.


also i doubt nasas drive was a bare drive, it would likely have been inside a blackbox or wehatever...

his drive isnt.. it's been sitting i n dirty stinking water for how long now? the platters probably ruined
 
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adidan said:
After all this time you have to wonder at the miniscule chances of any data being readable in the slightest.

Time, magnetic field degradation of a HDD that's not been powered up, environmental conditions

It'll be dead.
Click to expand...

Even in poor conditions a mechanical HDD can still be recoverable or partially recoverable after a very long time - I went through some old HDDs and FDDs recently which had been sitting around in a damp loft for decades, some dating back to the late 80s, less than 1/3rd were completely toast and even then could probably have got some data off with professional tools, over half were readable without issues and those I bothered to copy data off to keep were error free.
 
Rroff said:
Even in poor conditions a mechanical HDD can still be recoverable or partially recoverable after a very long time - I went through some old HDDs and FDDs recently which had been sitting around in a damp loft for decades, some dating back to the late 80s, less than 1/3rd were completely toast and even then could probably have got some data off with professional tools, over half were readable without issues and those I bothered to copy data off to keep were error free.
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The conditions of a landfill will be much worse than a damp loft, its not just moisture youve got to account for. Its the constant compacting, landfill compactors have teeth on the wheels to penetrate more, so there is a chance that the drive has been completely obliterated by one of these teeth.
 
TheCarcassKing said:
The conditions of a landfill will be much worse than a damp loft, its not just moisture youve got to account for. Its the constant compacting, landfill compactors have teeth on the wheels to penetrate more, so there is a chance that the drive has been completely obliterated by one of these teeth.
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If it has taken penetrative impact damage that is another thing again, also possibility the drive used stuff like glass or certain types of ceramic platters which are less robust, but HDDs are structurally pretty solid and the platters themselves are relatively resistant to damage unlike the PCB and heads, etc. even with light corrosion often professional tools can completely recover data. Some are hermetically sealed especially helium filled ones, others while not airtight aren't easily compromised by fluids due to the design, so there is a fair chance the drive has recoverable data.

b0rn2sk8 said:
It also doesn’t rain in your loft, well shouldn’t anyway.
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There are limits but depending on the HDD design moisture (design dependant also dry particles) can potentially enter more easily than liquids can - especially dirty water might clog up on the filters preventing ingress until the filters rot out (there are varying levels - some won't keep out water at all depending on how cheaply they've been made).
 
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b0rn2sk8 said:
It also doesn’t rain in your loft, well shouldn’t anyway.
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its not just rain there will be organic rotting matter etc in there surely?

we don't live in america where you can just chuck stuff down the sink, and I doubt people are flushing potato skins, old food etc in the toilet.

all the nasty juices likely keep parts of it soaking wet, it could be sitting in a slop bath right now, and I doubt HDD are water tight?.

whats the odds on the bag actually going through a sorting facility and the hdd likely removed from the waste?

apparently the GF dropped it at the tip, so I don't know what happens to it..
I've lobbed rotting potatoes, almost full jars of mayonnaise etc in the trash and I doubt I'm the only one.

we don't separate waste here though so I guess my circumstances are different. I think a private company empties our bins, and we just have mixed bin containers.

when that hdd was dumped people probably only had 2 bins? one garden and one general waste?
 
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Semple said:
The reason he's got investors is because the potential return far outweighs the cost of buying, excavation, clean up, and data recovery expertise. Even if all that sets him back 100 million then he's still significantly quids in.

The council should really put a price tag on it like 600 million+. That would scare of any potential investors because the upfront cost of buying the site would then exceed the potential return making it pointless to try and get.
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I understand all that.

But if you had £100m would you gamble it on him finding that hard drive and it being readable if he did?

Chances must be absolutely minuscule.
 
It probably ended up at a computer fair or car boot sale as it may have been sorted, wiped, formatted and a £10 sticker affixed...

... ending up in a totally different landfill in another county some tears later
 
arknor said:
and I doubt HDD are water tight?
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Depends on the HDD - the chamber the platters are in can be hermetically sealed though that is less likely with consumer grade drives, the non sealed variants are designed to resist ingress of fluids/moisture and particles via filters but only to an extent - the filter will break down eventually. Usually there is only a small hole so in mixed waste a good chance something blocks the hole effectively sealing the drive internals - due to the design of many drives liquid water doesn't easily get in when the drive is fully submerged as the air can't easily be displaced but that varies drive to drive.

People seem to be thinking more about what makes a drive inoperable vs the data on the drive becoming unrecoverable.
 
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