Hard drive buffers

[Pain_Man]

To the Expert Corps of the IBF:

 

Is a hard drive's buffer made of RAM (i.e. volatile) memory that would, of course, disappear once the current was cut.

 

OR, is the buffer merely a dedicated sector(s) of the HDD itself?

 

The reason I ask if because on the show Prison Break, an FBI computer guy tells the SAC (Special Agent in Charge) that he's been able "to recover 60% of the buffer."

 

If it's volatile memory, obviously, it couldn't be recovered. If it's on the drive itself, then it could be recovered (even if it had been on the bottom of the Chicago River).

 

If I were to need to ditch a hard drive I would use an erasure program that used the Guttman methodology (which wipes the drive 35 times and then writes random sequences of numbers) that destroys the data beyond any method of retrieval. Then I'd get the ingredients for thermite--which can be bought over the counter at any hardware store--and turn that drive into a puddle of metal and plastic. --Buh-bye!

[Shamus_McFartfinger]

OR, is the buffer merely a dedicated sector(s) of the HDD itself?

No idea. I suppose he could be talikg about the swapfile/pagefile.

 

If I were to need to ditch a hard drive I would use an erasure program that used the Guttman methodology (which wipes the drive 35 times and then writes random sequences of numbers) that destroys the data beyond any method of retrieval. Then I'd get the ingredients for thermite--which can be bought over the counter at any hardware store--and turn that drive into a puddle of metal and plastic. --Buh-bye!

I'd just drill a hole in the drive if it was that important.

[Pain_Man]

OR, is the buffer merely a dedicated sector(s) of the HDD itself?

No idea. I suppose he could be talikg about the swapfile/pagefile.

 

It wasn't the whole machine. The character just chucked the drive itself in the river. Since it's a TV show, this super genius character, of course, drops the HDD a few hundred yards from his apartment.

 

If I were to need to ditch a hard drive I would use an erasure program that used the Guttman methodology (which wipes the drive 35 times and then writes random sequences of numbers) that destroys the data beyond any method of retrieval. Then I'd get the ingredients for thermite--which can be bought over the counter at any hardware store--and turn that drive into a puddle of metal and plastic. --Buh-bye!

I'd just drill a hole in the drive if it was that important.

 

 

Would that be enough to wipe all the data? The guy's on the run from every cop in the US, not just afraid of somebody getting a hold of his Social Security number and a copy of last year's 1040.

 

Oh yeah, you're not American (?). A 1040 is the number of the most commonly used individual Federal income tax return.

[polopony]

a nice 4 inch grinder with a cut off wheel will do the job or a plasma cutter, blow torch,arc welder you know old school methods when only complete destruction will do and lets not forget the old stand by gasoline and matches

[dbminter]

It's a good question. Near as I know, a buffer can be both physical and virtual. A physical one being attached to a piece of hardware and a virtual one linking to storage in RAM or swapped disk space.

 

 

The buffers on the drives themselves are just as good a question. I would guess they're FLASH RAM of some kind. But, I, too, would like to know what this 8 MB or whatever buffer on the drive itself is. I should know, but, it goes to show, once again, that I most likely overestimate my own value. In the words of the Weird One, Al: "You suffer from delusions of adequecy."

[LIGHTNING UK!]

At the end of the day, it's a TV show! They can say what they like and most people will know what they mean (are trying to get across). 0.01% who know the technical ins and outs will know they're talking bollocks

[Groundrush]

At the end of the day, it's a TV show! They can say what they like and most people will know what they mean (are trying to get across). 0.01% who know the technical ins and outs will know they're talking bollocks

 

The other 99.09% of us are so gullible at times...

 

=))

[bootsector]

Hmmm... So it looks like this kind of shows are all nonsense when it comes to technology stuff..

 

A few months ago I saw on 'CSI Miami' a guy who typed an IP address which begin with 318.. WTF? At least I laugh a lot!

 

Regards,

 

bootsector

[dontasciime]

Or just buy a Maxtor drive.

[Grain]

Which is owned by Seagate now, or is it the other way around? I think it's Seagate.

[dontasciime]

Seagate took over Maxtor.

[dbminter]

Hmmm... So it looks like this kind of shows are all nonsense when it comes to technology stuff..

 

A few months ago I saw on 'CSI Miami' a guy who typed an IP address which begin with 318.. WTF? At least I laugh a lot!

 

bootsector

 

 

My favorite is from Jurassic Park.. By just LOOKING at a GUI, the kid miraculously knows that the system is a UNIX based one. "I know UNIX!"

 

 

Or in that recent series, Surface, where the lead character, a supposed marine biologist, looks at a DNA stream and makes a remarkable discover that the creature is a mammal. Wow! Of course, by just LOOKING at a DNA sequence, it could also be FROG DNA or human DNA or...

[bootsector]

... My favorite is from Jurassic Park.. By just LOOKING at a GUI, the kid miraculously knows that the system is a UNIX based one. "I know UNIX!" ...

 

 

LOL! Mabe that's a "Jurassic" version of KDE or Gnome :

[JasonFriday13]

Oh, and Groundrush got his maths wrong. It's 99.99%, not 99.09%.

[Groundrush]

[Shamus_McFartfinger]

... My favorite is from Jurassic Park.. By just LOOKING at a GUI, the kid miraculously knows that the system is a UNIX based one. "I know UNIX!" ...

 

 

LOL! Mabe that's a "Jurassic" version of KDE or Gnome :

Ah! Just what I need - a linux person. Any chance of some help with Samba? (\etc\samba\smb.conf). The goddam bastard of a thing won't let me change the default workgroup from MDKGROUP to FUCKIT. It keeps complaining about permissions and I still have my linux learners permit. Mapping linux to windows with smb4k is simple enough (when the password wallet doesn't fail and you can't remember or delete the old password) but I can't get the poofter to join my workgroup.

 

 

 

EDIT: I know that \etc\samba\smb.conf is technically incorrect but apparently the Apache server running ImgBurn won't let me post if I use forward slashes.

 

Lightning?

[bootsector]

Hi!

 

Can you upload your smb.conf through rapidshare.de? So I can take a look and try to see what is going wrong!

 

Regards,

 

bootsector

[Shamus_McFartfinger]

Hi!

 

Can you upload your smb.conf through rapidshare.de? So I can take a look and try to see what is going wrong!

 

Regards,

 

bootsector

I can if you think it'll help. I probably should have explained myself better. Infact, I'm sure of it. I can export the smb.conf file pretty much anywhere and happily edit it. The problem arises when I try to copy the edited file back to etc\samba\ or to edit the file directly from the \etc\samba\ directory. It's gotta be a permissions thing (root probably) and I can't figure it out.

[dbminter]

Can you upload your smb.conf through rapidshare.de? So I can take a look and try to see what is going wrong!

 

 

Well, what's primarily wrong is using Rapidshare. Sorry, couldn't resist digging into them a little. They get on my nerves. Links that are dead within a day, flagging nearly everything as someone complained about them, so, in effect, they get deleted nearly instantly, etc.

[lfcrule1972]

Then I'd get the ingredients for thermite--which can be bought over the counter at any hardware store--and turn that drive into a puddle of metal and plastic. --Buh-bye!

You got those ingredients handy PM ? That is an evil concoction and no mistake !

[Shamus_McFartfinger]

Then I'd get the ingredients for thermite--which can be bought over the counter at any hardware store--and turn that drive into a puddle of metal and plastic. --Buh-bye!

You got those ingredients handy PM ? That is an evil concoction and no mistake !

You can't buy the components needed for making thermite at a hardware shop , unless they now sell bags of aluminium oxide (powdered aluminium) and cans of iron oxide (rust). Making the stuff is easy. Igniting it is not. And no, I won't be posting what you need to ignite it. Drilling a hole in the HD in question will do every bit a good job of destroying whatever data was present without resorting to using hazardous materials such as thermite.

[dbminter]

Eh, just make some napalm derivitive instead with gasoline and styrofoam. And, no, I won't be saying what missing steps are needed because they require a bathtub and a double boiler to... ah, damn it!

[spinningwheel]

Deeb;

 

Gasoline, diesel and powdered detergent....no double boiler, no bathtub...just

[lmao2k]

Very powerful magnet or run a high current over the platters

[kevdriver]

Just give oily some pizza and beer................