Name Game
Premium
join:2002-07-07
North Myrtle Beach, SC
| Recovered Seagate Disk Gives Clues to Columbia Crash
Recovered Seagate Disk Gives Clues to Columbia Crash
Researchers who extracted data from a hard drive onboard the ill-fated Space Shuttle Columbia mission say the device was so thoroughly damaged by its fiery crash to Earth that it resembled simply a cracked "hunk of metal" when it appeared at their door six months later.
Still, over the past four-and-a-half years, data recovery specialists at Kroll Ontrack Inc. have painstakingly retrieved 99% of data store on the charred 400MB Seagate hard drive's 2.5-in. platters in just two days. The device was found in a dried up lake bed along the shuttle's debris area.
The Columbia Shuttle disintegrated on atmosphere re-entry over Texas on Feb. 1, 2003, killing all seven crew members and scattering debris across Texas and Louisiana. Investigators determined that a piece of foam that became dislodged after launch damaged the ship's thermal protection system and led to the uncontrolled heat build-up that destroyed the spacecraft.
»www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/a···ash.html
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pcborgy
@irishbroadband.ie | 99%...
That is amazing and scary... |
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jaykaykay
4 Ever Young
Premium,MVM
join:2000-04-13
Scottsdale, AZ | reply to Name Game
Holy cow! Utterly unbelievable what was done. |
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mikenolan7
Premium
join:2005-06-07
Torrance, CA | reply to Name Game
Kinda blows away this theory:
»Re: Best way to physically destroy hard drive? |
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JTM1051
MVM
join:2000-07-08
Moorpark, CA
edit:
May 8th, @02:27PM
| Not entirely ...
"... Two other hard drives aboard the Columbia were too severely damaged to extract any useable data, he added. Edwards said the older Seagate hard drive -- about eight-years-old in 2003 -- featured much greater fault tolerance and durability than current hard drives of similar capacity. ..."
Does give some credence to the latest not always the greatest. 
Edit: fixed typo |
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Name Game
Premium
join:2002-07-07
North Myrtle Beach, SC | reply to mikenolan7
That's what I was thinking. |
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NetFixer
Snarl for the camera please
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Murfreesboro, TN
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edit:
May 8th, @02:58PM
| reply to Name Game
Interesting article. It mentions that this was an older drive which contributed to its survival while new drives were totally destroyed. Since newer drives use glass platters as opposed to the aluminum platters used on many older drives, I would have thought that the newer glass platters would have been more likely to survive the high temperature reentry due to the relatively low melting point of aluminum. I am also pretty sure that the ST9655 family does not use glass platters, so I am guessing that the reentry temperature did not pass the melting point for aluminum at the location where this drive was mounted, and the difference might be that the oxide coating bonds to aluminum better than to glass.
The environmental specs for the ST9385AG are:
1.11.1 Ambient temperature
Operating 5° to 55°C (41° to 131°F)
Nonoperating –40° to 70°C (–40° to 158°F)
1.11.2 Temperature gradient
Operating 30°C/hr (54°F/hr) max, without condensation
Nonoperating 30°C/hr (54°F/hr) max, without condensation
1.11.3 Relative humidity
Operating 8% to 80% noncondensing (10% per hour max)
Max. wet bulb temperature: 29.4°C (85°F)
Nonoperating 8% to 90% noncondensing (10% per hour max)
Max. wet bulb temperature: 40°C (104°F)
1.11.4 Altitude
Operating –1,000 ft to 10,000 ft (–300 m to 3,000 m)
Nonoperating –1,000 ft to 40,000 ft (–300 m to 12,190 m)
I guess that rules out NASA getting a warranty replacement from Seagate. 
I do have to wonder exactly what "Clues to Columbia Crash" were recovered from this drive since the article says it was part of a dedicated device used for a zero gravity orbital experiment. 
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mikenolan7
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join:2005-06-07
Torrance, CA
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| I agree that "Clues to Columbia Crash" is a bit of sensationalism, but it is a great story. Glass platters would survive much higher temperatures, but they definitely would not survive the impact with the ground as well. My guess is that requirements for hard landings would dictate the use of aluminum. |
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punker
deleted by moderator
Premium
join:2004-06-21
Palmdale, CA
clubs:
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| reply to JTM1051
said by JTM1051  :Not entirely ... "... Two other hard drives aboard the Columbia were too severely damaged to extract any useable data, he added. Edwards said the older Seagate hard drive -- about eight-years-old in 2003 -- featured much greater fault tolerance and durability than current hard drives of similar capacity. ..."Does give some credence to the latest not always the greatest. Edit: fixed typo i have an old 1 giger that works way better then my newer drive |
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lemonade
join:2003-12-13
Los Angeles, CA
edit:
May 8th, @05:15PM
| How's that "way better" ?
I can understand people say those older drive has better quality (may be better QA and QC) at the time they were manufactured compare to these days' , but i can't see how they are better? |
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astirusty
Premium
join:2000-12-23
Henderson, NV
·AT&T Southwest
edit:
May 8th, @06:13PM
|  reply to Name Game
I would like to see pictures of the "simply a cracked 'hunk of metal'" disk drive assembly and then pictures of the "charred" platters before being impressed or amazed/scared about Kroll Ontrack being able to retrieve 99% of the stored data. I am thinking the platters were fairly well in tact and it was only the housing that was badly damaged. Which this statement points too: "Everything but the drive's platters were virtually unusable..."
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astirusty
Premium
join:2000-12-23
Henderson, NV
·AT&T Southwest
| reply to lemonade
said by lemonade :... but i can't see how they are better? Older drives used aluminum platters, whereas some of the new drivers are using glass platters. It takes effort to destroy aluminum platters. The glass ones, well they shatter into pieces with almost no effort.
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NetFixer
Snarl for the camera please
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Murfreesboro, TN
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edit:
May 8th, @06:52PM
| reply to astirusty
said by astirusty :I would like to see pictures of the " simply a cracked 'hunk of metal'" disk drive assembly and then pictures of the " charred" platters before being impressed or amazed/scared about Kroll Ontrack being able to retrieve 99% of the stored data. I am thinking the platters were fairly well in tact and it was only the housing that was badly damaged. Which this statement points too: " Everything but the drive's platters were virtually unusable..." Those pictures are in a link from the original article (that's how I knew the model no. of the drive).
Space Shuttle Columbia's hard disk drive
Here is a sample thumbnail teaser. Click the link for the real images.
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We need to witness our own limits transgressed, and some life pasturing freely where we never wander.
Test your firewall. |
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astirusty
Premium
join:2000-12-23
Henderson, NV
·AT&T Southwest
| said by NetFixer :Here is a sample thumbnail teaser. Click the link for the real images. Its kind of what I thought, the platters appear to be pretty much intact. Thus nothing for people to put their tin-foil hats on about big-brother being able to recover data from actually destroyed disk (drives/platters). Melt the platters, sand the magnetic coating (rust) off, drill holes through the drive, or pounding the platters via a framing hammer (dimpled head), or my favorite a pick-axe through the drive, and nobody is going to recover anything meaningful.
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snipper_cr
join:2002-01-22
Wheaton, IL
clubs: | reply to Name Game
Wow... so the drives I dont want the feds to see I should have destroyed better, is that what you are telling me? Jk.
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aurgathor
join:2002-12-01
Bothell, WA
·Verizon west (ex G..
| reply to Name Game
Aside from some debris on them, the platters pretty much survived intact, and that's the key thing for recovery.
But even then it still took quite a while:
quote:
over the past four-and-a-half years, data recovery specialists at Kroll Ontrack Inc. have painstakingly retrieved 99% of data
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Its a Secret
Rabidly yours
Premium
join:2008-02-23
Canada
·Shaw
| said by aurgathor :But even then it still took quite a while: quote:
over the past four-and-a-half years, data recovery specialists at Kroll Ontrack Inc. have painstakingly retrieved 99% of data
I'm sure for such mission-critical data, they would have taken extraordinary measures to insure no data was lost.
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rob_in_chatt
Premium
join:2004-09-17
Chattanooga, TN
·Comcast
| reply to Name Game
Still, over the past four-and-a-half years, data recovery specialists at Kroll Ontrack Inc. have painstakingly retrieved 99% of data store on the charred 400MB Seagate hard drive's 2.5-in. platters in just two days.
says 2 days. what the hell have they been doing with it the last 5 years? |
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flibby3655
Premium
join:2004-12-19
Lompoc, CA
edit:
May 8th, @09:45PM
| reply to Name Game
I'm wondering what NASA paid for that 400GB HDD in 2003? Or Earlier, 2002.
Oops... I didn't read that right. It's MB. |
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Maxo
Your tax dollars at work.
Premium,VIP
join:2002-11-04
Tallahassee, FL
clubs:
·Embarq
| reply to rob_in_chatt
said by rob_in_chatt :what the hell have they been doing with it the last 5 years? Scrubbing the porn off of it so that it will never ever be retrieved. |
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