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Data from Columbia disk drives survived the shuttle accident
Yahoo! via AP ^ | 5/9/2008 | BRIAN BERGSTEIN

Posted on 05/10/2008 6:02:08 AM PDT by shove_it

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To: Izzy Dunne
Based on the de-soldered IC, etc. the temperature obviously exceeded 361 degrees Fahrenheit (182.7777778 degree Celsius).

Presumably, that is above the Curie point for magnetic recording media.

Now I'm wondering if some of the floppies whose cases curled/warped during our house fire might not still be readable...

41 posted on 05/10/2008 8:13:57 AM PDT by TXnMA ("Allah": Satan's current alias...!!)
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To: Chode

Don’t confuse CMD.EXE with DOS - that is actually a DOS command shell running on top of Windows, not the other way around.


42 posted on 05/10/2008 8:19:05 AM PDT by Mr. K (Some days even my lucky rocketship underpants don't help)
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To: babygene
More credit goes to the drive manufacturer in my opinion than to DOS.

That's my view.
And I'd like to know who made them!!!
As I'm planning to buy some back-up drives and all I get is double-talk
on which are the best/most-durable.
43 posted on 05/10/2008 8:19:25 AM PDT by VOA
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To: Mr. K
Image hosted by Photobucket.comis there a separate boot track/partisan to dos then? cause if you hit F8 on boot it lets you boot straight to dos or is that still just a process over a windows os??? thx...
44 posted on 05/10/2008 8:27:23 AM PDT by Chode (American Hedonist ©®)
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To: shove_it

That’s a warning to all those money launderers that the info is out there and some how some way it will be recovered.


45 posted on 05/10/2008 8:29:25 AM PDT by lilylangtree (Veni, Vidi, Vici)
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To: VOA
As I'm planning to buy some back-up drives and all I get is double-talk on which are the best/most-durable.

That's going to be pretty subjective. Whoever made these drives may have to best coating on their drives measured by how well they retain data when overheated. Gaining that may be at the expense of data capacity or access speed. Unless you can afford what it costs get data off a failed drive, for backup media you'd probably be better off looking at criteria like the reliability of the electronics and mechanical components, than the thermal resiliance of the surface media. MTBF is supposed to be an objective measure of that, but I take weigh manufacturer's numbers against their reputations.

46 posted on 05/10/2008 8:30:22 AM PDT by tacticalogic ("Oh bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: Leisler

Looks like the drive got hot enough to desolder the surface mount IC shown in the foreground.

Interesting that the heat didn’t demagnetize the platters.


47 posted on 05/10/2008 8:51:58 AM PDT by Erasmus (Nihilism never amounted to anything.)
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To: hoosierham

Come to think of it, I used an early IBM DOS for a while. It was an operating system for the IBM System/360 computer line.

You also had the option of “TOS,” the Tape Operating System.

[Just to be clear, the DOS mentioned above appeared about twenty years before the PC’s DOS and had nothing to do with it.]


48 posted on 05/10/2008 8:58:04 AM PDT by Erasmus (Nihilism never amounted to anything.)
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To: Loud Mime
Wow!Thanks for that link to the Avalon Project.

Can you imagine today's media reaction to such a speech as Washington gave 200 years ago?

"well,i mean,he used, like, lots of big words nobody knows,uhhh, ...let's go to Dan for commentary..."

49 posted on 05/10/2008 9:01:08 AM PDT by hoosierham (Waddaya mean Freedom isn't free ?;will you take a creditcard?)
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To: TXnMA
Based on the de-soldered IC, etc. the temperature obviously exceeded 361 degrees Fahrenheit (182.7777778 degree Celsius).

Time to update the Bradbury classic!

50 posted on 05/10/2008 9:04:42 AM PDT by Erasmus (Nihilism never amounted to anything.)
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To: Erasmus
I thought maybe the chip got accelerated out of a mount. The data tape to the drive from the board is still intact and unmelted. I would think that would have a lower temp than solder. Not sure though.
51 posted on 05/10/2008 9:08:59 AM PDT by Leisler
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To: lilylangtree

I hear the best way is to drill multiple times through all the platters. Or a very strong magnet.


52 posted on 05/10/2008 9:12:21 AM PDT by Leisler
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To: Erasmus
"Time to update the Bradbury classic!"

Why is that?

The (apparently paper) stickers on the outside of the HD case are intact. If they are, indeed, paper, that means the exterior of the case never reached Bradbury's classic Fahrenheit 451"... '-)

53 posted on 05/10/2008 9:28:31 AM PDT by TXnMA ("Allah": Satan's current alias...!!)
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To: Leisler

The kapton film that the IC was mounted on can withstand short-term temperatures in excess of the melting point of solder. That’s how they attach the IC.

To get accelerated off the substrate, it would have taken probably 1000 G’s, and the chip and stubstrate would have ended up in tiny little pieces.


54 posted on 05/10/2008 9:39:42 AM PDT by Erasmus (Nihilism never amounted to anything.)
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To: TXnMA

I was thinking along the lines of the new way to store books, and “Fahrenheit 361.”

< }B^)


55 posted on 05/10/2008 9:41:45 AM PDT by Erasmus (Nihilism never amounted to anything.)
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To: Leisler

I wonder whether it was the shock of impact, the heat melting the solder, or both that caused that IC chip (bottom of the second picture) to become loose like that.


56 posted on 05/10/2008 9:44:36 AM PDT by Question_Assumptions
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To: TXnMA

The solder doesn’t look like it was flowing so it’s possible that the chip sheered off the board from the impact or the solder might simply have softened a little and then the impact popped it off. But if it really melted, I wouldn’t expect the remaining solder on the board to be so neat.


57 posted on 05/10/2008 9:47:36 AM PDT by Question_Assumptions
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To: Mr. K

An esoteric piece of info, a 340mb drive will be broken down into 4K-8K chunksin DOS so the data could be recovered in large contiguous chunks.


58 posted on 05/10/2008 10:09:59 AM PDT by ImJustAnotherOkie
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To: Question_Assumptions; Leisler
Molten solder has very high surface tension. In fact, the ST is so high that one of the basics of surface-mount technology is that the the surface tension of the solder will force SMT packages into "self-alignment" with the pads. If left undisturbed, molten solder will form shiny, symmetrical "mounds" on the "tinned" pads on the board -- which is, apparently, the case here.

Assuming the use of 63/37 Pb/Sn (eutectic) solder, that drive saw temps in excess of 183C.

59 posted on 05/10/2008 10:28:56 AM PDT by TXnMA ("Allah": Satan's current alias...!!)
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To: Erasmus
Cool! (OK, shoot me for pun violation). This is why the Internet is putting to sleep the idiots in the MSM. One of us knows something about something, way, way, better than any socalled professional journalism.

I was misthinking the chip was a plug in, like a card. D’oh!

60 posted on 05/10/2008 12:38:07 PM PDT by Leisler
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