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I've been watching this guy's challenge over the past year, and nobody has accepted it. To me, that either means the recovery is truly impossible, or else someone has a vested interest in keeping the skill to themselves.


It can be done, especially if you write 0's, 1's, or some other predictable pattern.

At the analog level writing a 1 or 0 doesn't make the bit go all the way to absolute 0 or 1 but just far enough that the electronics on the disk can decide between 1 or 0, just like emptying a glass of water still leaves behind a few drops but it's "empty" and definitely not full.

Spooks can replace the electronics on the disk and read the level of each bit. If overwritten by 0 you then set the 0-vs-1 threshold very low to read the shadow of what used to be there.

It's analogous to reading pencil & paper writing that's erased - it looks blank but if you at very faint markings - perhaps making them brighter in Photoshop - it can be done.

It requires a lot of very expensive equipment and knowledge of how that disk works. The R&D labs of the drive makes are probably the only ones who can, and they aren't going to get into it just for the fun of beating a challenge.

Writing 0 a bunch of times moves the bit's value so close to absolute 0 that the shadow of the previous value can't be seen. Writing a random data pattern twice means that you can't tell which way the bit was "leaning" before, ie, can't make the assumptions needed.

If you're surfing the web for porn on the employer's notebook the "dd" of 0 in his example will destroy the evidence. If the NSA was convinced bin Laden's address was there they could still get it, but short of that it's safe.

If I don't see a naked tit in this thread soon I'm moving it to AWOP.
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"If they can't picture me with a knife, forcing them to strip in an alley, I don't want any part of it. It's humiliating." - windsock