I think that the article you are referring to was my article in which
I recovered data from 150+ hard drives purchased on eBay. But the
data was recovered with standard forensic tools.

There is no publicly available evidence that overwritten data has
ever been recovered from a hard drive that was manufactured after 1995.

-Simson

On Oct 24, 2006, at 5:12 PM, michael (at) impactonline (dot) com [email concealed] wrote:

> I am looking for an article I read sometime between 2002 and 2005.
> The content discussed how a research lab (maybe MIT or another
> large tech university) was able to recover data from a hard drive
> after over 50 formats (or it may have been data overwrites or even
> a combination of both) (I seem to remember the key number as 57
> "deletion" operations). I think the article mentioned the use of a
> scanning electron microscope, magnetic force scanning, or something
> similar or more high-tech. This might have been published to a tech
> Web news site or a tech e-mail newsletter. I've searched for hours
> and I can't seem to locate it again.
>
> In my search I've come across numerous papers and articles about
> how this recovery concept is not possible. So, it may have been a
> figment of my imagination, a hoax, or misleading news reporting.
>
> In any case, I really only need to hear from those of you who know
> the location of this specific article rather than rebutals to the
> possibility of the topic.
>
> I appreciate any assistance provided.
> - James Michael Stewart
>

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