Will there ever be the technology available to recover overwritten data?

[Hassaan17]

Whether it be on magnetic tape, hard drives etc. I imagine this must be a frustration for many people, but I wonder if that technology would ever be possible.

 

[martinch]

On older HDDs, it was not uncommon to be able to recover over-written data, as the tolerances were large enough to allow it (you could actually do it with some drives simply by tilting them...). On never drives, the tolerances are such that you're largely out of luck, unless you start examining residual charges to extrapolate what the previous data might have been ...

 

[Hassaan17]

On older HDDs, it was not uncommon to be able to recover over-written data, as the tolerances were large enough to allow it (you could actually do it with some drives simply by tilting them...). On never drives, the tolerances are such that you're largely out of luck, unless you start examining residual charges to extrapolate what the previous data might have been ...

I imagine it'd be more difficult for magnetic tape though. I bet there are many people who have accidentally recorded over a film. I wonder if a Kickstarter might have any impact?

 

[popatim]

In the old days you just shifted the head to the left or to the right a little and you could pick up the old data. Nowerdays they don't want us commoners having this ability and its largely just used in forensic's as far I've been told. The same technology exists for tape but I don't know a thing about flash storage though I have to believe with the right tools its possible. You might have to sheer off the top of the chip and read cell by cell with an electron microscope though >LoL talk about time consuming. Hahaha.