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Technology and Internet Emerging and current tech related issues. Internet, DRM, IP, and other technology related discussions. |
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Here is a "Cool Story Bro" titled Why you should CLEAN your HD before getting rid of
So I was looking for a nice SATA 2.5 drive for my laptop in 2011.
BTW, I am only telling this now because lately after reading all of the Linux and MAC and looking for a job, this story just keeps popping back in my head, but whoopty doo, the FBI and other places are not banging down my door to hire me so have fun with this. I went onto Fleabay and found a "NOS SEALED 250GB SATA 2.5" HD" so I figured, okay, this guy has a decent feedback, the photos look decent (cause we all know photos NEVER lie...) and I figured, okay, $82 for this drive delivered is a fair price. SO I bought it. When it showed up I popped it in the cradle and I started to load up my image from the older hd on it and it told me that if I continued, all data will be destroyed on the partition. I was like, WAIT a sec, what partition? There should not be anything on this partition. There should not be any partitions PERIOD. So I exited acronis and had a look at it like a regular external drive and sure enough, there was a SINGLE partition labeled Windows XP. I was like, wait a second, How did a new HD get a partition on it and how did they know it was gonna be for Windows XP? SO I unplugged it and fired up my game system and then plugged it in via USB there (I have all of my data recovery software there) AND I scanned it with a program or two. I discovered over 990k files as old as 2005 (drive was manufac in 2008 though) and several partitions although only one was really recoverable. So I THINK I used a combination of Get My Databack and Ontrack Data Recovery, FBI Forensic Data Recovery Tool, plus another program that specialized in finding photos and stuff. (I was hell-bent on discovering someone's stash of porn!) After about 2 hours I had a listing of files, there were a million files alright. I sent a message to the vendor *****ing at him for selling me a used drive under the guise of it being a new old stock. I was furious because I was going to have to spend money sending him back the drive and waiting even longer now before I could get my laptop up and running. He apologized and said to send him back the drive and he would make things right. The next day I started parsing through those files. There were a LOT of XLS and DOC files as well as EML files. The guy that owned the drive before me actually used it for doing actual work. I started parsing through the photos and I found all KINDS of photos of conferences and photos taken in Madrid Spain, Iceland and other places. I also saw a recurring image of a pasty white guy. Not normal pasty, but foreigner pasty. Like, he was here from Amsterdam pasty. You know, really WHITE I.T. type of guys- Similar to Jim Parsons (but with redder or more hair) from Big Bang Theory. So I kept looking cause I had not seen any porn yet but I was very close I could feel it. I saw more photos of this guy and what I believed was his son, his wife, I think a dog, and real estate property they were looking up, shopping for things online, and a bunch of Dell XPS related images. I figured based on the images that this drive came out of a Dell XPS LAPTOP. So it was an expensive laptop prolly and it only had a short life span of a few years so they must upgrade regulary. Anyways, a LOT more photos of dinners and vacations and conferences. Conferences were mainly inside with a large perimeter of tables and microphones all hooked up so that everyone could hear everyone. The photos got boring and I switched to thmubnail view and saw that out of the 15k+ photos/images many were little GIFs and web related stuff so parsing through was manually done because SOME full sized images were only about 15k or so as well. Anyways, I decided that there were a lot of photos with this guy in them so I switched tactics after skimming through and finding no porn, I figured this guy was a decent wholesome guy and deserved to have his stuff back. SO I sent another e-mail to the vendor *****ing at him for calling this a brand new hd and it was just wiped and the old information was not even properly disposed of, and here he was selling this stuff online. His reply was that he was an honest business man and it must have gotten mixed up in his drawer with the newer drives or what not and he swore up and down he had no idea and did not remember anything about that drive so it had to have been new by his memory. I pushed on and started looking at documents. I started looking at DOC files and found a LOT of documents that contained ASKCALEA and Tridia Works. (I remember the cool triangular logo). Wow, so this guy worked for ASKCALEA AKA Tridia Works LLC. (It did not dawn on me to look them up online) I saw docs that were memos talking about the new hires and how one was making 79k and looking to make more and had top secret clearance and all that. I was like, wow, this is a first. Usually we only see stupid homework assignments and stuff but here I have resumes and all. Then things got a bit more interesting. I started seeing more and more documents talking about lawful interception of telecommunications (wiretapping) and telecom projects and messages that were saved as DOC form that talked about conference rooms and airplane tickets and cc numbers. All kinds of stuff. I kept seeing one name in particular pop up as well as a few others but one name stood out because that name was also the OWNER of many documents. Then I found the document that really made me want to find the owner of this HD. It talked about a joint effort between ASKCALEA and TRIDIA and the FBI to get some projects done and phases and stuff and then I looked up ASKCALEA and put one and one together. I had a HD from a laptop that was used for the FBI. Apparently The FBI has a division called AskCalea and they worked with Tridea Works which means that I guess they are an FBI contractor. So once again I sent another message to the fleabay vendor and *****ed at him for selling off a HD that had sensitive information on it from the FBI. I told him he was not going to be getting it back because I was going to send it to the owner myself to make sure that no one else had any access to this stuff. The guy was practically begging me in messages to not give him negative feedback over this, he gave me a refund and everything. I told him I had to think about it. SO I went back to looking at the HD files and found several XLS files that had room numbers, e-mail addresses (my guy was there again) and other important information listed. I later saw an e-mail from the guy whose name stood out to me and it was HIM telling others what their account logins and passwords were for e-mail and what not. SO I went to an address and verified that it was an e-mail (fatcows.com or something) and then saved that e-mail address and name. I figured that this HD belonged to a guy that worked in the FBI, was an admin or something and was in charge or whatever of giving out access. Cool. SO I found his e-mail address and it made sense because it reflected his name. and I found one other person's e-mail. To the first two folks I sent them an e-mail, they were seperate because the one guy, named Mike something I sent him an e-mail telling him that I bought a hd on fleabay and I think it belonged to a colleague of his and if he knew of any that were stolen I wanted to return it, but I wanted to confirm the information before I just sent it off to anyone and I described the guy who I thought should look like the owner. As a bonus I told him to change his e-mail password because if it was this:xxxxx then it had been compromised. Then I sent an e-mail to the other person telling them to change their e-mail password also because I had recovered it from a "NEW" hd that I bought on fleabay and who knew who else had seen it. THEN I sent en e-mail to the guy whose name stood out. I told him that I thought I had HIS hd from a laptop and said that if it was not his then the HD I had had a LOT of his documents on it as well as family photos and vacation photos and if he wanted them back then let me know and I would sell it to him (becaues I had to pay for it and I did not want to be out a HD). MEANWHILE, I had just bought another NEW drive from another seller on Fleabay and I was out $75.00 but I had a NEW 250GB drive coming my way. At lunch the next day I was telling this story to the other officers/inspectors I had lunch with and one told me that I should not have sent any e-mails to the "OWNER" because in doing so it sounded like I was trying to extort money from him and if he really did work for the FBI then when I got home I was going to have a team of black SUVs outside waiting for me. When I got home it was business as usual. Nothing out of the ordinary. So I checked my e-mail and low and behold the "OWNER" responded. He said that he thought it was a hoax but when two other co-workers came to him with the e-mails that they had received he thought that there might be some truth to what I said. I told him how I came across it and I said that I was willing to wipe the drive properly and make sure that the information was disposed of or I could send it to him in case he wanted anything off of it but if I did that then I was going to be out a HD for my laptop. He said that I was honorable for doing that and offered me a replacement 500GB drive or an amazon.com gift card for $125. Since I had already bought another HD I thanked him and asked for the Amazon giftcard because having a 500GB drive in a 2.5" body was a recipe for disaster as far as I was concerned but with the Amazon card I could buy a 250GB drive. And so he gave me via e-mail the link to the amazon gift card and all and I sent out the drive and gave him the tracking number. He thanked me again after receiving it and told me that the HD was sold off from the company but there were several that were not cleaned properly (cleaned under a different standard then what they have now) and that was one of them. I told him how to access the information because nothing was on the HD and I never heard from him again. SO later on I was looking through those photos looking for more evidence because he never told me if it was his hd or not. And then I finally found it. I saw a photo he or his wife shot of his kid holding an AMAZON.COM box and his name and address were on the shipping label. BAM! and that was when I knew I was a superstar! I got spooked afterwards and ended up deleted ALL of my e-mail in my account I used to send him e-mail and I deleted all of the recovered files and everything associated with it because I was paranoid of the FBI showing up and taking my game system and all and I could not be without my game system. SO anyways, I am sure this wins the cool story of the day... This is why I like to buy HDs on fleabay from time to time, you NEVER know who's information you are gonna find on them. And if you ever get rid of a drive yourself, make sure to wipe it VERY good. Sadly, I never was offered any employment because of this story but it makes me dream all the time of what a great movie I could make out of it somehow. His name is unimportant in this story but I will never forget it. Had I applied myself earlier on I bet I could have been in a position like this guy is in. Great job doing something that he prolly likes a lot and working for a great company.
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7 Billion people on the planet. They aint ALL gonna astronauts. Some will get hit by trains... Need GOOD SS pins to clean your brass? Try the new and improved model... And remember- 99.9% of the lawyers ruin it for the other .1%... Last edited by stilly; 05-01-2013 at 1:39 PM.. |
#2
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Yes, I am an electrical engineer. No, I will not fix your computer. |
#4
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Yup what I use too. when I'm done with a drive it isn't worth selling anymore anyway.
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-POLICESTATE, In the name of the State, and of the School, and of the Infallible Science If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever. Government Official Lies . F r e e d o m . D i e s . |
#5
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You mean after you get them back from the FBI??? lol
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A note to the NSA or anyone gathering information on me, this disclaimer is for you..."Everything I type on this website Is purely fictional and for entertainment purposes only. None of it is true." Also, sometimes I type in CAPS to emphasize a POINT. Please dont interpret that as YELLING. Sorry if I HURT any fuzzy little bunny's FEELINGS out there. |
#7
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I recall once talking to a place that physically grinds up the hard drive as you watch.
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I think Thor's hammer was an 45-70 lever action loaded with Garrett cartridges. I find that 90% of the questions asked here have been answered 20 or more years ago by Jeff in hid Gargantuan Gunsite Gossip books. "Taking a rifle to a gunfight is the equivalent of taking a chainsaw to a knife fight." Lt. Col. Grossman in On Combat (Sec 2, Ch 1) |
#9
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dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=1M
Go watch some pr0n, and when you are done (45 min on avg later)... uncarvable-even. I got sick of shards of these new platters they use these days getting close to my eyes, and stuck in my shoe-soles... |
#11
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A easy and fun way is to take out the platter and strike an arc with a mig welder on the edge straight across from the ground connection. It fry's it and gives the surface a nice crackle finish.
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#12
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Cool story. We have an animal at work that eats HD's.
We feed it old drives coming out of ATM's, servers, and PC's. It's a bad Mamba Jamba. -g
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If ever time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin. -Samuel Adams |
#13
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I feel cheated.
And I wasted 2 minutes of my life reading your story. It really went nowhere. More info is required to make it a good story. At least a hint of how far up the ladder the actor and the final player were. No confidential info, or actual names. And I guess I would like to know the title of the book or movie you're actually using as your reference. Wasn't it some Ben Affleck, or low budget Steven Segal movie? |
#16
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I'm switching over to SSHD's and I wipe all my old drives with a torch. Once all the platters are a puddle of metal, then they can be disposed of. If some of the photos I have on my photo HD got out, there would be a few furious husbands out there and a few soon to be divorced wives.
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With all this "gun control" talk, I've not heard one politician say how they plan on taking guns from criminals, just law abiding Citizens. |
#18
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Hey what do you expect for free? :P
The laptop was older and I always go cheaper for older stuff. It was an N6400 COMPAQ so it used a SATA and I did not wanna spend the additional cash for a SSD that was 250GB. :\
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7 Billion people on the planet. They aint ALL gonna astronauts. Some will get hit by trains... Need GOOD SS pins to clean your brass? Try the new and improved model... And remember- 99.9% of the lawyers ruin it for the other .1%... |
#23
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Best line of your story, thanks for the laugh. I think we can all relate to that.
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#24
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This is why we send our drives out to get ground into raw materials and get certified evidence of the destruction... Why any company would allow their data to leave is beyond me, especially any kind of FBI related people.
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#25
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So, you dug through 1,000,000 files and not one of them had instructions on how to make a paragraph
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We’re ALL GOING TO DIE! Can’t somebody do something?!?!?!?! |
#26
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I have started new lines and indented 5 spaces for each of these sentences. What am I doing wrong. Please tell me so that I can be one step closer to being a power user like you. Sorry. There were no instructions on how to use the Vbulletin message board system found on Calguns.net on how to type a story and indent. Is it really that important to you though? If so I will go back and use the Vbulletin TAGS to fix it. I just figured it would be a funny story to put up and share instead of asking how to program my iphone or cable box or something mundane. The next story will have guns and chix for you.
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7 Billion people on the planet. They aint ALL gonna astronauts. Some will get hit by trains... Need GOOD SS pins to clean your brass? Try the new and improved model... And remember- 99.9% of the lawyers ruin it for the other .1%... Last edited by stilly; 05-02-2013 at 10:09 PM.. |
#29
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However, I am not sure I would trust shooting them, or even a drill-press... as there are recovery techniques such as this: And if they can do that, I'd rather just zero-fill for proven-security. Now it is up to you if you think someone is going to spend like 25k-50K+ to recover any data from in-tact platters, melted in concrete, let alone the increased cost of recovering data from shattered platters or not, as no pr0n is THAT good... well, not even snuff? Last edited by the86d; 05-03-2013 at 1:57 PM.. |
#31
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Lies. You did not read the entire text cause if you did you would not have asked that last question.
__________________
7 Billion people on the planet. They aint ALL gonna astronauts. Some will get hit by trains... Need GOOD SS pins to clean your brass? Try the new and improved model... And remember- 99.9% of the lawyers ruin it for the other .1%... |
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"If he won't walk, walk him...be nice" -Dalton WTS: 870 Barrel Clamp/Railed Mount http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...af415fafe8.jpg |
#34
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Bench top grinder + Hard drive == Dust
Recover that sh*t.
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#35
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Yeah just don't breathe that dust... Neodymium dust is pretty gnarly for your lungs from what I understand...
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#36
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You know, with all of this crap that is going on, I wonder if what I dug up was the tip of the iceberg...
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7 Billion people on the planet. They aint ALL gonna astronauts. Some will get hit by trains... Need GOOD SS pins to clean your brass? Try the new and improved model... And remember- 99.9% of the lawyers ruin it for the other .1%... |
#37
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Wait, you destroyed the evidence? Didn't you, at least, keep a single printed copy of that Kenya birth certificate?
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NRA Certified Pistol, Rifle, Shotgun and Metallic Cartridge Reloading Instructor California DOJ Certified Fingerprint Roller Ventura County approved CCW Instructor Utah CCW Instructor Offering low cost multi state CCW, private basic shooting and reloading classes for calgunners. CCW SAFE MEMBERSHIPS HERE KM6WLV |
#38
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I realize that by saying this I am potentially opening myself up to a visit by the FBI and NSA, SO I think I will burn a few more copies and distribute them to several people just for insurance purposes hopefully. Yeah sorry, but the vast majority of items WERE memos about "Lawful Signal Interception" and the various devices used in different countries. COULD be nothing, but then again, maybe not. I wonder if there was any PRISM stuff there though, I should look for it all again... Oh yeah and about that kenya birth certificate. That was a multipart/multilayered PSD/PDF file. What was with that, the entire file was layered and modular... I think if you opened it in either Illustrator or another prog you could change out and move or deleted many elements like the background and signature and other stuff...
__________________
7 Billion people on the planet. They aint ALL gonna astronauts. Some will get hit by trains... Need GOOD SS pins to clean your brass? Try the new and improved model... And remember- 99.9% of the lawyers ruin it for the other .1%... Last edited by stilly; 06-20-2013 at 1:08 PM.. |
#40
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If you only knew, you can take apart the HD and remove two magnets from inside along with the platter and hang the platter in fruit trees to scare the birds away and use the magnets on the fridge or anything where you want a VERY strong magnet... Those magnets will hold through your hand.
__________________
7 Billion people on the planet. They aint ALL gonna astronauts. Some will get hit by trains... Need GOOD SS pins to clean your brass? Try the new and improved model... And remember- 99.9% of the lawyers ruin it for the other .1%... |
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