From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jan 20 16:12:04 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E568416A4CE for ; Thu, 20 Jan 2005 16:12:04 +0000 (GMT) Received: from dexter.starfire.mn.org (starfire.skypoint.net [66.93.17.236]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 16F8643D2F for ; Thu, 20 Jan 2005 16:12:04 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from john@dexter.starfire.mn.org) Received: (from john@localhost) by dexter.starfire.mn.org (8.11.3/8.11.3) id j0KGC3S45451 for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Thu, 20 Jan 2005 10:12:03 -0600 (CST) (envelope-from john) Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 10:12:03 -0600 From: John To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20050120101203.B45394@starfire.mn.org> References: <200501200929.j0K9TXbl022106@mp.cs.niu.edu> <41EF92A2.30506@incubus.de> <20050120130838.K768@kenmore.kozy-kabin.nl> <41EFB860.1030606@locolomo.org> <20050120145658.E2927@kenmore.kozy-kabin.nl> <503540176.20050120155229@wanadoo.fr> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5.1i In-Reply-To: <503540176.20050120155229@wanadoo.fr>; from atkielski.anthony@wanadoo.fr on Thu, Jan 20, 2005 at 03:52:29PM +0100 Subject: Re: FreeBSD I LOVE YOU X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 16:12:05 -0000 On Thu, Jan 20, 2005 at 03:52:29PM +0100, Anthony Atkielski wrote: > Colin J. Raven writes: > > CJR> I always thought that formatting/fdisk'ing twice completely erased > CJR> *permanently* whatever had been on the disc. > > Information can be recovered from disks even after a dozen or more > overwrites. The data is never safe with the platters intact. Good gosh, what are you people doing on your machines - designing weapons systems? What what you are all saying is TRUE, it is not TRIVIAL. After a "security erase" on a disk drive, or a full over-write, it takes increasingly sophisticated levels of lab equipement and environments to do the sort of things that you are describing - including disassembly and clean-room stuff. In otherwords, someone has to be willing to invest at least a few hundred dollars (if it has simply been overwritten) to several THOUSAND dollars to do these sorts of recoveries, and some patience, because it takes TIME, and often, like million-year-old DNA, there are gaps that need to be reconstructed. What do you folks have on your hard drives that is worth thousands of dollars and weeks of time for someone to recover? If it was as easy as you describe, we'd rarely need backups. Your disk drive crash? Oh, just bring it to the local recovery service and they'll get all your data back for $9.95. NOT!!!! -- John Lind john@starfire.MN.ORG