shredding files on a flash drive

[James Knott]

Kristian Erik Hermansen wrote:
> On Jan 26, 2008 1:15 AM, Peter P. <plpeter2006-/E1597aS9LQAvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>   
>> The platters are all self aligned and soft formatted. The people who recover
>> data have fancy drives with micrometer screws that allow the platters to be
>> realigned as needed. There is also a way to read the platters without contact
>> using a laser and a physical effect known as Faraday Rotation. It does not
>> require that the platters be in one piece or straight. I am not an expert on
>> this but be sure that other people ARE.
>>     
>
> The platters are self aligned and soft formatted once they are in the
> casing!  If they become separated, how to do propose to realign
> multiple platters?
>   
Why do they have to be realigned?  The servo and clock information are
embedded in the signal, on each platter.  You seem to be of the optinion
that the data has to be aligned between platters.  This isn't so, though
they may be in an operational drive.  When you read data from a working
disk, the first thing to happen, is the head seeks the desired track. 
The individual tracks can be counted by observing the signal, as the
head moves across the surface.  Then, when the controller thinks it's in
the right position, it starts reading data, which contains the track and
sector information, in addition to user & meta data.  This data is self
clocking and can start anywhere around that track, independent of any
other disk surface.  Like I said in an earlier note, it would be a good
idea for you to read up on how drives actually work.  One good reference
for computers in general, is Scott Mueller's "Upgrading and Repairing
PCs".  This is an excellent book, that covers, in addition to many other
things, how disk drives work.  It describes exactly what I've been
telling you about disk operation.  By reading that, you'll find many
errors in your argument.



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