Can deleted data of XD cards be retrieved?
- Thread starter boroangel
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Once the card has been written with new data, it's impossible to retrieve the data that resides in the area where the new data now lies, old data however is still possible to retrieve.
espn said:
So lets say I take a pic of a confidential company file....then all I have to do is to delete all.....take random pics to fill up the whole XD card....then delete them away and theres no chance anyone can try to retrieve the pic of that document from the cards using some equipment?
boroangel said:
To be safe you should use what is known as "file shredder" software that overwrites the file many times to ensure nothing is recoverable. Filling up the card with random files and deleting them can be risky...though theoretically the old file should be overwritten there's a slim chance it may still be recovered with certain "high end" software.
By the way you're into industrial espionage issit? Taking pictures of confidential files like those guys in Alias? Tsk tsk.
boroangel said:
You can try cyberscrub though there are others available.
http://www.cyberscrub.info/file-shredder/
No it won't damage the card. Else what's the point? Generally they're pretty good according to a colleague who works at data forensics.
boroangel said:
You should try to find out more about this product first. I read the info at the site and there was no mention about using it with SD memory modules or in any manner that closely represent erasing data from memory modules like CF, SD, Magixstick..etc.
It mentioned HDD, FAT32, FAT16, NTFS, Floppy, ZIP disc, JAZ Drive..etc. The way memory modules like SD or CF works is abit difference to a HDD for example. Whether it might damage the module is not known. I hate to be a wet blanket here but best to err on the side of caution I think. But so far all the stuff it can safely erase concern a certain type of disc related storage system.
In fact I don' t see why writing over the SD entire memory module by shooting picture over it and then re shoot another set again and then end by formating it. That should totally erase all data on the module. I am not 100% certain with SD but with CF I know if you write over existing data, what was once there is no longer there at all. If at any one time you can go back one level to retrieve that old picture file or whatever...instead of calling it for example a 512mb memory module, they might as well call it a 1gig memory module. heheh. The CF in any case work on a switcher type memory like a kind of switcher that works in "on and off" an electrical charge changes it and when the electricity is switched off, it just stays in that possible till it next gets another charge to change its "off and on" position. That is why it has like a limited life span due to this physical switching. I am not sure if SD is the same technology but at a more micro level but if it is..it should not be that hard to erase previously recorded stuff and over write it with something else. heheh Most retrieval software that help you get back data are for use on damage storage devices. Meaning...data recorded on it prior to the storage device crashing. And nothing was written over it ever since. Files that you deleted and that part of the storage area has not been over written by any new data will 100% be retrieved back by undeleting them. I have done data retrieval on some of my bad HDD before but usually, what has been over written will be lost. For a data retrieval program to work it need to logicall find some bits here and there to piece together the info and extract the data. If too many parts are missing, all you get are rubbish that will not produce a complete file and thus can not read at all.
So secret agent stuff all this heheh. What you shoot har boroangel? heh..Not some naughty pictures or something secretive you should not have taken while during your holiday trip hahahahah..... If that "secret secret" it might be worth totally destroying that memory module heheheh.
sammy888 said:
The 1st sentence of your 3rd paragraph doesn't make sense.
You're right in saying that once a file is overwritten MANY times it cannot be retrieved. But you need to understand how file systems work. In an ideal world, data will fill up in your storage device like water in a bottle. However in reality it is hardly the case. Filling up your memory with random files does not mean that every byte will be used up. There are bound to be gaps where parts of coherent data still reside. While incomplete, it may still be used to piece together the original file. Furthermore, unless you overwrite an area several times there are still ways to retrieve data.
And such software does work on memory cards. Most are formatted using FAT16 or FAT32. Otherwise how do you think your PC reads/writes the data?
And its not secret agent stuff, but common practice by many organisations to destroy data storage devices containing classified data even if the unit is brand new. However it is uncommon to possess pictures of confidential files. People with legitimate access will have the document files and not resort to physically photographing stuff.
I am partially speculating and using what information I know about memory access to relate how this situation can be looked at from another view. I am not 100% sure at this point how SD memort works. But I do know CF works with switches. FAT32 or FAT16 is how the file allocation table is divided out to store the data on a HDD but how SD card's physical mechanism works to keep the information is in question. Thus how a HDD spins a disc as it writes, erase and rewrite it would be alittle diffence from a solid state memory module like SD or CF. Aslo XP does not use FAT16/32 but NTSF. For CF, they use micro switches. Many just abit OT but for those who wantst to know, a CF card far as I know last about 4 million read and write. Did you know there is a 100% chance to retrieving your pictures if you write say 300mb of pictures to a CF and then you erase them and then write another 300mb in that same 1 gig memory module and then you format it. You still can immediately use a undelete programto get back not just the lastest 300mb of pictures but the previous as well. This is not due to FAT16 or 32. It is the way the CF card works. Imagine a 1 gig card is 1000 chairs. You ask 300 people to sit in the first 300 chairs. Then you ask the 300 people to leave the chairs. Next you ask another 300 people to sit on 300 chairs. But this time you tell them to sit on the next 300 chairs. What that means is they will sit on the chairs starting at 301th chair right up to the 600th chair. Ask them to leave and the next 300 will start to occupy the next 300 chairs begining from the 601th to the 900th chair. Only when the next 300 that come to sit on the chairs, only the last 100 chairs will be sat on for the first time while the balance 200 people will go back to the begining to sit on the from the 1st chair to the 200th chair. Understand what I am saying. That is why you can still savage your stuff on the CF if you catch it in time and not overwrite it yet. This is how the CF card work to maximise how long you get to use your CF's life span beyond 4 million read and write. ( I might be wrong regarding if it is 1 or 4 million read or write ..so bear with me heheh)
If I got the concept wrong do let me know... anyone. So due to the way it works with the CF...how does the SD card work? So I am just advising boroangel to take caution. It is his money he paid for the card mah..if he is to listen to any advice let him have all the details to work with. Now till we can be 100% sure of how SD memory module works and whether it works with the linked retrieval software. We do need to practice caution with what stuff we want others to try. That's all I am say with my message to HIM. If anyone one else have anything to throw in to help boroangel make the decison are welcome of course and if I am wrong, please correct me too.
I was teasing him.... it is not like I have never converse with boroangel before lah heheh. Do you walk around with a pea stuck between your butt crack? heheheheh....loosen up bro..
boroangel: Do let us know the outcoming.
Well, There is a really good shredding proggie that I used in my previous job for really "sensitive" material.
PM me if you want to know. Btw, I can help you recover your files if you need to.
PM me if you want to know. Btw, I can help you recover your files if you need to.
boroangel said:
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