Stories from the Bench: Wipe Out

[crashhelmet]

I spent a couple of years working as a service technician at a retail electronics chain. I'm not sure how these stories would classify, so feel free to move as you see fit.

Wipe Out
CH: Me
SC: The PITA himself
T: One of the best managers you could ever work for

CH: Good afternoon. What can I help you with today?

SC: I need ot have my Hard Drive formatted (Sets down a 1GB HDD, no anti-static bag, no computer case wrapped around it. Just the Hard drive)

CH: (I don't rememebr my exact words here but I went into this spiel about can't be held responsible for the drive sionce he brought it in without any kiond of ESD protection and needing him to sign a waiver)

SC: I shouldn't have to sign that. I just want my HDD reformatted.

CH: If I take this drive and it doesn't spin up, you could try and hold us responsible. That waiver needs to be signed before I can touch it.

SC: I just need my drive formatted. Can't you do that for me?

CH: Not without that waiver.

This goes on for a few minutes and and my Manager comes over

T: What's the problem here?

I explained the situation.

T: Either sign the waiver or please leave.

SC: Ok. (He fills out the paperwork)

CH: OK. That'll be $54.95. take this quote over to our registers and I'll get this taken care of for you. It should be done by the time you get back with the receipt.

SC: $54.95? I just want the drive formatted. I'm not paying that much.

CH: Sir, that's our cost for an hour labor. All jobs are a minimum of 1 hour labor.

SC: But it's only going to take a few minutes, you said so yourself.

CH: I'm sorry, but all jobs are a minimum of 1 hour labor.

Meanwhile, T sees me arguing with the customer again

T: Now what's going on?

I explain the new situation to him. T reaches down below the counter and pulls out an Electromagnet. He sets it on top of the HDD and turns it on.

CH:
T: There. It's formatted. Get away from my counter.
CH: Still

I don't know who had the more dumbfounded look on their face. Me or the customer.

I'll post more stories later...

Crash Helmet

[Kyree]

Wholy crap. was the look on my face while reading that as well! Is T going to get into trouble for it?

[Blade_Raver]

BOFH-style bulk eraser FTW! T Wins.. flawless victory!

[marasbaras]

Beautiful!

[jb17kx]

BOFH-style bulk eraser FTW! T Wins.. flawless victory!

Fan of El Reg, eh?

[symposes]

My dad had a big electromagnet he would wipe floppy disks with...

hahahaha

[Geek King]

Your manager rules! Keep that one.

[PepperElf]

lol. that'd do it too.
actually that's prolly one of the more secure ways if i'm not mistaken

[Dark-Star]

lol. that'd do it too.
actually that's prolly one of the more secure ways if i'm not mistaken

You, sir, get 10 points. Even most 'erasing' software leaves some sort of pattern that can be seen through - sort of like a patterned noise in a sound you can 'tune out'. But that method plays merry hell on the stored data, so much so that it's one of the few ways the US gov't will erase sensitive stuff - albeit with really freaking powerful magnets...

[PCGameGuy]

Heh. Got a couple rare earth magnets, and needed to wipe some old reel-to-reel tapes. Set one magnet on top, stuck the other one on bottom, and swirled the top one. Bottom magnet folowed. One swirl circuit, and tape is now ugly streamer material!

[bigjimaz]

I'm about as stupid as they come as far as the inner workings of a computer, but I do know that electromagnet + HDD = for your boss.

This is epic WIN!

[SpyOne]

Fun fact: DEC made a personal computer about 20 years ago, called the DEC Rainbow.

Fun Fact #2: if you formatted a floppy disk on the DEC Rainbow, other computers would refuse to recognize it as a disk. As in, if you put it into the drive on a Commodore 64, the computer would NOT say "Disk Error" or "Disk Not Formatted", but would just keep spinning it forever, trying to find the disk. If you put in a disk-shaped piece of cardboard, you got better results. So it was impossible to reformat the disk for another computer.

"Impossible" isn't really the right word, if you are resourceful and know what you are doing. I would hold 2 50-watt car stereo speakers, magnet end towards each other, as close as I could to each other, forcing them together despite strong magnetic forces pushing them apart. Then my brother would twirl a floppy disk through the gap, basicly spinning the disk by hand to make sure that every part of the disk passed through the strongest part of the field several times.
We figured that should destroy the information on the disk at least enough to undo whatever the Rainbow had done to it.
And we were right.


Bonus: I still own a DEC Rainbow, though I haven't plugged it in for several years.

[PepperElf]

few ways the US gov't will erase sensitive stuff

heh. the techs i know prefer using sledgehammers for that. kinda hard to read a disk when you bend the platters in half

[Broomjockey]

heh. the techs i know prefer using sledgehammers for that. kinda hard to read a disk when you bend the platters in half

I think that's been covered previously. It's actually quite possible as long as the discs are still of a piece. It just takes more sophisticated technology than the average consumer has access to. As long as the magnetic fields are left intact, the data's recoverable.

[VenomX]

Wasnt there a thing on Court TV a while back about detectives finding a cut up floppy or HD.. forget which.. and putting it back together and solving a murder?