Memories of a Media Card

twistedmoney99 writes "Anyone who has upgraded their digital camera probably has a few older, incompatible media cards lying around — so why not post them on Ebay? Well, if you do, be sure to properly wipe them because the digital voyeurs are watching. Seth Fogie at InformIT.com purchased a bunch of used cards from Ebay and found recoverable data on most of them. Using the freely available PhotoRec application, he was able to extract pictures, movies, and more from apparently formatted cards. The picture is clear — wipe anything that can store digital data before getting rid of it."

I don't even bother to erase mine.

[Anonymous Coward]

It adds to the value on auction sites. A lot of people are willing to pay a fortune to see images of my dick.

Re:I don't even bother to erase mine.

[DaveM753]

You should try using a zoom lens.

(Just kidding!)

My dead hard drive...

[DaveM753]

I had a 4-month-old 250gb hard drive die of heatstroke within a fanless drive enclosure. The drive had, shall we say, material of an "educational" nature. (ahem)

Anyway, I didn't want to release said material to the general public at [insert HD manufacturer here], so I abandoned any warranty recovery and just physically destroyed the drive. So much for that $100.

Re:I don't even bother to erase mine.

[User 956]

A lot of people are willing to pay a fortune to see images of my dick.

Do they fight over the microscope as well, or is it usually pretty orderly?

Re:speaking of wiping data

[Sylver Dragon]

If it's data you care about someone else getting a hold of, I would recommend using Thermite [wikipedia.org]. It's a wonderful, all purpose, cleanser of just about everything.

Re:speaking of wiping data

[phalse phace]

"What are the best methods for removing almost any record of data?"

Have Chuck Norris give it a roundhouse kick.

Where have I seen those before?

[Anonymous Coward]

> Its man page is also the only one I know of that uses the phrases "rising totalitarianism", "Department of Homeland Security", and "THIS IS AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS THING TO DO".

Doesn't "man woman" also use those phrases? And for good reason, too...

Re:dd /dev/random

[Anonymous Coward]

Bols, I don't get it: are you actually saying there's NOT ENOUGH randomness out there?

Here, have some of mine: ldjaofp9 bpm ]ak e]-07

Re:For The Pervs

[drawfour]

So, if you're a pervert who enjoys walking around in a trench coat naked underneath

You know, we're all naked beneath our clothes.

Re:For The Pervs

[Anonymous Coward]

Shhhh, don't let the christians hear that

Re:To your health.

[ScrewMaster]

Modern storage systems either forget what they're supposed to remember, just when you need it the most ... or they remember it long after it is best forgotten.

Re:I don't even bother to erase mine.

[baldass_newbie]

If it were small, he'd want a macro lens.

You seem to speak from experience...

Re:speaking of wiping data

[DaveM753]

Maybe that's why they laid me off two weeks ago. :-(

Re:I don't even bother to erase mine.

[Stephen Tennant]

Even better is, tucked in with dull vacation and random photos, a blurry close up of your balls, which invariably requires closer scrutiny, a "What's that?" from the viewer, and, finally - Huzzah! - rapid recoil and disgust!

Re:Been there, done that...

[tylernt]

Please Post pix. Thanks in Advance.

Yes, I'd love to see thermite destroy a hard drive.

Call me a packrat.

[Perseid]

I'd just keep the damn thing. You know that as soon as you sell it you'll have a desperate need for it. That's just how the world works.

Re:same old story

[blantonl]

Ahh.. Hard disks - With all the above posts, I thought you said hard dicks for a second there.

Re:same old story

[ruiner13]

No, this one is a copy someone left on a flash card sold on ebay.

Re:My dead hard drive...

[noidentity]

That, my friend, is why you should keep a backup of your "data"! Then if the original drive goes bad, you still have a copy of the data to destroy if neessary.

Re:Memory effect

[Hawke666]

For top-level classification their specification to ensure data destruction remains to this day in the belly of an incinerator.

Wow, even the specification is so secret that it was destroyed immediately? That's f'n hardcore!
One question, though: how do they know how to destroy data properly, if the specification's been destroyed?

Re:same old story

[Fred_A]

Hm, haven't we had this story already with hard disks, some time ago?

But we haven't had it with tapes, flopticals or CDRW yet. I'm waiting till we can collect the whole set.

Re:I don't even bother to erase mine.

[RESPAWN]

The sad part is that I remember some friends in college doing this to our RA's camera when we found it left on the stairwell. She was so happy when she knocked on our door to see if anybody had found her camera! I wasn't there when she looked at the pictures, but I can't imagine she was happy for very long. :)