Rebuilding HARD DRIVES for Data Recovery: Anatomy of a Hard Drive

Presented at DEF CON 14 (2006), Aug. 4, 2006, 3 p.m. (50 minutes)

Every hard drive will die a quick and sudden death sooner rather than later. What happens after that death can be very important to your data and become the deciding factor in its survival. We will display the inner workings of a hard drive in a beautiful animation and discuss the successes and failures in rebuilding a hard drive. We will teach you what to look for and how to accomplish this task on your own. We will delve into the platters and heads to show you when there is a good probability of success. Have you ever wondered how data recovery houses can rebuild your drive and put your data back together? The animated presentations will make it clear how rebuilding a hard drive can save your data and your money.


Presenters:

  • Scott Moulton - Forensic Strategy Services
    Scott Moulton was the first person arrested for Port Scanning in January of 2000. During the defence, Scott found he had to train his lawyers on the technical aspects of computers in order to defend himself. This began his forensic computer career with a speciality in rebuilding hard drives for investigation purposes. Many times working on a case, Mr. Moulton will be given hard drives that had already failed in an effort to "blame" the opposition or to slow down the work and cost the opposing forces more money. To combat the "blame" scenario, Mr. Moulton developed a skill at rebuilding hard drives and recovering data. In the five years since its inception, Mr. Moulton has handled many complex cases that include homicide, embezzlement, theft, divorce, child pornography and corporate fraud and continues to combat dead hard drives to this day.

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