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Data Recovered From Space Shuttle Columbia HDD
Posted by
timothy
on Wed May 07, 2008 02:12 PM
from the gary-sinise-was-not-involved dept.
from the gary-sinise-was-not-involved dept.
WmHBlair writes "Data recovered from a 400MB Seagate hard drive carried on the Space Shuttle Columbia has been used to complete a physics experiment performed on the mission in space. The Johnson Space Center sent the recovered drive to Kroll Ontrack in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Considering the shape the drive was in (see picture in the linked article), it could indeed qualify for the 'most amazing disk data recovery ever.'" Update: 05/08 12:51 GMT by T : Reader lucas123 points out a piece at Computerworld with a series of photos of the recovered drive.
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Yup... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Yup... (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=hard-drive-recovered-from-columbia&sc=rss [sciam.com]
I'm pretty sure it's the one from the shuttle..
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Re:Yup... (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Yup... (Score:5, Funny)
Short of that though, yeah - platters were just peachy.
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Re:Yup... (Score:5, Funny)
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=hard-drive-recovered-from-columbia&sc=rss [sciam.com]
No, I'm pretty sure that's just stock photography of an IBM Deskstar after one week of use.
Parent
What about the temperature of re-entry? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd say that's the part that makes this impressive. Re-entry is known to be pretty darn warm. And heat will scatter magnetic domains. Heat up a magnet - it's not a magnet anymore.
Either this HD was in the center of a ball of stuff and didn't get very hot, or Seagate has some seriously awesome engineering going on.
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Vibration degrades magnets (Score:4, Funny)
All I had to do in many cases was to swap in a new set of magnets (and send the old ones out to be remagnetized). Then there were the clients that would turn the current up to compensate for the demagnetizing. They sent theirs back for a smoke refill after the smoke got out.
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Re:Yup... (Score:5, Informative)
Basically, you pay a bench fee to get the drive examined, and then they send you the costs for recovery - for a desktop HD $500-$1500 depending on the problem. The cool part is that they send you a manifest of the recoverable files/directories so you can make an informed decision.
And they _can_ perform miracles. Including dealing with bent platters. Just depends on what you want to pay.
I must say it's been a great instructional tool for people who've neglected backups. They become wild operational militants after these episodes.
Just remember that the ONLY way to ensure data cannot be recovered on a HD is to raise the drive temp past the Curie Point for the magnetics. (A charcoal BBQ works really well for this. Just pull the electronics and wrap the drive in heavy foil unless you like the smell of roasted phenolic.)
Even if you "format" a drive it means that the waveforms coming off the heads can be interpreted as a certain, predictable value - but also remember that at root, it's an analog system and so artifacts from the prior contents are around, it's just a question of finding and interpreting them... That's why the DoD and other "erase" things are so comprehensive. Trying to obliterate all artifacts.
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Re:Yup... (Score:5, Informative)
A good general explanation is given by the RCMP (what the hell mounties have to do with computers, like most of Canadian society, is entirely beyond me) http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/tsb/pubs/it_sec/g2-003_e.pdf [rcmp-grc.gc.ca]
If you have the practical need to nuke a drive, used DBAN: http://dban.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net]
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Re:Yup... (Score:5, Interesting)
I've got a friend/co-worker/gun-nut who never returns a drive with his data on it. Work gets laptops back, sans drives. He takes them out to the range with a high-powered rifle and puts rounds thru them.
Me, I just use OS-X's write-random 7-times. But if blocks got remapped because of io-errors in the drive, that might be enough for the truely paranoid. If I were that, I'd use my oxy-acetylene torch and just melt the platters to slag, after pulling the magnets out to play with.
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Re:Yup... (Score:4, Funny)
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Re: (Score:3, Informative)
that photo is clearly linked to the article above -- which also doesn't even seem to actually be slashdotted... totally a fritter.
Re:Yup... (Score:4, Informative)
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Re:Yup... (Score:5, Funny)
You can tell the make and model of a nearly completely trashed hard drive.
I'm not sure whether I should be impressed or if I should merely feel sad for another wasted life ...
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Re:Yup... (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Yup... (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Yup... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Yup... (Score:5, Funny)
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I've had some drives crash on me, but.. (Score:5, Funny)
I'll bet Ontrack made a fortune off of this recovery, too.
Re:I've had some drives crash on me, but.. (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:I've had some drives crash on me, but.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:I've had some drives crash on me, but.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't count on it. First off, they probably didn't even know if they could recover the data. Second, they would have no way of knowing for sure that NASA would release the information about them providing the data recovery services. Third, they very likely wouldn't have known whether or not the data (if recovered) would be used for anything in the future. Fourth, there are very strict rules about government agencies doing business where they don't pay for services, especially with potentially classified data on the drives.
I would bet very strongly that they got well paid for this recovery.
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Good thing, too! (Score:5, Funny)
Amazing data recovery! (Score:5, Funny)
Preparing for slashdot effect (Score:5, Funny)
Seriously people. Show some foresight here. At least the editors should have shown some mercy.
Soooo.... anyone got a coral cache of it?
another link (Score:5, Informative)
workaround to get into this website to view it (Score:5, Informative)
Almost looks like the site is denying visits when the referer is slashdot.org. With the below method, I was able to read the full article with no problems.
To get in, simply copy the link in the story into a new browser window and hit enter to come into the site with no referers.
Hope this helps
Way to go guys (and gals) (Score:5, Funny)
Damn, that is one tough drive! (Score:3, Interesting)
I've always been skeptical when a hard drive's specs mention being able to handle 300 g's. Looks like they aren't kidding.
only 400mb? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I would say it was likely the experiments exact hardware requirements were set in stone a year or two before launch. Flash drives are plentiful and reliable now, but may not have been deemed reliable enough at the time.
When it comes to space, tried and tested older equipment is better. Just ask the Russians.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Wrong Shuttle or wrong image name? (Score:5, Interesting)
Challenger was many years earlier...
Re:Wrong Shuttle or wrong image name? (Score:4, Interesting)
As the external tank collapsed and the srb rotated, it rotated the shuttle so that it was no longer aligned with it's nose pointed towards the direction of travel. The aerodynamic forces became so extreme, that it overwhelmed the shuttle's structure.
The shuttle was literally torn apart due to the aerodynamic forces. The explosion actually occurred after the collapse and breakup as the escaping oxygen and hydrogen ignited.
Bill
Parent
Link to xenon experiment's extract (Score:5, Informative)
The abstract for the science experiment is at http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRE/v77/e041116 [aps.org] (or in the table of contents issue is http://scitation.aip.org/dbt/dbt.jsp?KEY=PLEEE8&Volume=77&Issue=4 [aip.org] ).
"We measured shear thinning, a viscosity decrease ordinarily associated with complex liquids, near the critical point of xenon. The data span a wide range of reduced shear rate
Warranty Void (Score:4, Funny)
One TOUGH DRIVE (Score:4, Interesting)
http://www.ssiworld.com/watch/watch-en.htm [ssiworld.com]
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
At least the pic of the server [blocksandfiles.co.uk] is still intermittently retrievable!
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Most amazing disk data recovery ever
It was one of the most iconic and heart-stopping movie images of 2003: the Columbia Space Shuttle ignited, burning and crashing to earth in fragments.
Now, amazingly, data from a hard drive recovered from the fragments has been used to complete a physics experiment - CXV-2 - that took place on the doomed Shuttle mission.
Columbia's fragments were painstakingly and exhaustively collected. Amongst them was a 400MB Seagate hard drive which was in the sort of shape you think it would be in after being in an explosive fire and then hurled to earth from several miles up with a ferocious impact.
The Johnson Space Centre workers analysing the shuttle crash sent it off the CVX-2 (Critical Viscosity of Xenon) experiment engineers, who sent it on to Kroll Ontrack in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to see if the data, any data, could be recovered. For researcher Robert Berg and his team it was the only hope, a terribly slim hope, of salvaging significant data from the experiment looking at Xenon gas flows in microgravity.
The Kroll people managed to recover 90 percent or so of the 400MB of data from the drive with its cracked and burned casing. Now, a few years on, Berg and his team have analysed the data and reported the experiment and its results in the April edition of the Physical Review E journal. These showed that, rather liked whipped cream which changes from a fluid to a near-solid after being whipped or stirred vigorously, the gas Xenon change its viscosity from gas to liquid when similarly treated in very low gravity. The phenomenon of a sudden change in viscosity is called shear thinning.
It was a highly complex experiment needing prologed and detailed analysis of the data on the hard drive to discover the shear thinning effect. But it, like the drive, was eventually found. So ends a twenty-year research project and in doing so helps bring to a finish the dreadful story of the Columbia Space Shuttle mission.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Fastest /. effect ever ! (Score:4, Informative)
Data recovered from Seagate drive in Columbia shuttle disaster
posted on 06 May 2008 20:05
Most amazing disk data recovery ever
It was one of the most iconic and heart-stopping movie images of 2003: the Columbia Space Shuttle ignited, burning and crashing to earth in fragments.
Now, amazingly, data from a hard drive recovered from the fragments has been used to complete a physics experiment - CXV-2 - that took place on the doomed Shuttle mission.
Columbia's fragments were painstakingly and exhaustively collected. Amongst them was a 400MB Seagate hard drive which was in the sort of shape you think it would be in after being in an explosive fire and then hurled to earth from several miles up with a ferocious impact.
The Johnson Space Centre workers analysing the shuttle crash sent it off the CVX-2 (Critical Viscosity of Xenon) experiment engineers, who sent it on to Kroll Ontrack in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to see if the data, any data, could be recovered. For researcher Robert Berg and his team it was the only hope, a terribly slim hope, of salvaging significant data from the experiment looking at Xenon gas flows in microgravity.
The Kroll people managed to recover 90 percent or so of the 400MB of data from the drive with its cracked and burned casing. Now, a few years on, Berg and his team have analysed the data and reported the experiment and its results in the April edition of the Physical Review E journal. These showed that, rather liked whipped cream which changes from a fluid to a near-solid after being whipped or stirred vigorously, the gas Xenon change its viscosity from gas to liquid when similarly treated in very low gravity. The phenomenon of a sudden change in viscosity is called shear thinning.
It was a highly complex experiment needing prologed and detailed analysis of the data on the hard drive to discover the shear thinning effect. But it, like the drive, was eventually found. So ends a twenty-year research project and in doing so helps bring to a finish the dreadful story of the Columbia Space Shuttle mission.
[Chris Mellor, editor.]
Parent
Mirror (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:Mounting Brackets (Score:5, Insightful)
As for the condition of the drive, it's hard to say. The exterior was obviously fried, but it was still basically drive-shaped, and from the picture it's impossible to say how damaged the platters were. If the outside was messed up but the platters were still intact, I would think recovery would be fairly simple. Would have been nice to include a picture of the interior of the drive, or maybe even multiple pictures as they took it apart.
Parent
Re:Mounting Brackets (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=hard-drive-recovered-from-columbia&sc=rss [sciam.com]
(Link stolen from another post in this thread)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Mounting Brackets (Score:5, Informative)
There we go
=Smidge=
Parent
Re:First post (Score:5, Funny)
Error Executing Database Query.
Data source rejected establishment of connection, message from server: "Too many connections"
The error occurred in
20 :
21 :
22 :
23 : SELECT tag, value FROM parameters
24 :
SQL SELECT tag, value FROM parameters
DATASOURCE blocksandfiles
VENDORERRORCODE 1040
SQLSTATE 08004
Resources:
Check the ColdFusion documentation to verify that you are using the correct syntax.
Search the Knowledge Base to find a solution to your problem.
Browser Opera/9.23 (X11; Linux i686; U; en)
Remote Address 70.49.63.152
Referrer http://blocksandfiles.com/article/5056 [blocksandfiles.com]
Date/Time 07-May-08 07:30 PM
Stack Trace
at cfparameters2ecfm1715857017.runPage(/home/httpd/customtags/parameters.cfm:22) at cfApplication2ecfm1592932022.runPage(/home/httpd/vhosts/blocksandfiles.co.uk/sitedocs/Application.cfm:17)
com.mysql.jdbc.exceptions.MySQLNonTransientConnectionException: Data source rejected establishment of connection, message from server: "Too many connections"
at com.mysql.jdbc.SQLError.createSQLException(SQLError.java:921)
at com.mysql.jdbc.MysqlIO.doHandshake(MysqlIO.java:1055)
at com.mysql.jdbc.Connection.createNewIO(Connection.java:2749)
at com.mysql.jdbc.Connection.(Connection.java:1553)
at com.mysql.jdbc.NonRegisteringDriver.connect(NonRegisteringDriver.java:285)
at coldfusion.server.j2ee.sql.pool.JDBCPool.createPhysicalConnection(JDBCPool.java:562)
at coldfusion.server.j2ee.sql.pool.ConnectionRunner$RunnableConnection.run(ConnectionRunner.java:67)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:619)
Parent
Re:First post (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:First post (Score:4, Funny)
That "First post recovered !" business was really a debug string literal that crept in at one point.
The expected output was, or course "Hello, World".
We're obviously going to have to port some of this to Mono. Probably get a more impressive stack trace out of it, too: the line count that wimpy java business didn't even make double digits.
How weak is that?
Parent