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Retro collectors are uncovering hoards of old data

wired.co.uk

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Re: Retro collectors are uncovering hoards of old data

#11

Post by p_l »

I once managed to rescue AlphaServer 255/233 from being parceled out by unknowing e-waste dealer. Spent a bit of time trying to connect everything, connected the serial terminal that came with it, flipped the power switch expecting empty machine...

... Lo and behold, I see it autobooting into heavily customized VMS 6.1 (first patch level that could boot on it), that turns out to be special Blockbuster Video version with appliance-style licenses loaded (NET-APP-150), probably designed to run with a DECserver connecting multiple terminals over LAT.

Turned out the second of two SCSI drives still held not just the custom BBV software, but also the database, including PII and history data, with flags like "18+" on various movies.

Re: Retro collectors are uncovering hoards of old data

#13

Post by kps »

yardie wrote: post #9

I bought an old Sparcstation at university auction. After gaining access found one of my professor's account. It was his workstation. Had a chuckle, wiped it, and installed FreeBSD.

Some years ago I got a workstation (either a VAXstation or MIPS DECstation) that originally belonged to a university group where my then-boss had studied. Since the OS was old enough to have used the original weak crypt(3) for /etc/passwd, I checked… and yes, he did still use the same password.

(I wiped it and installed NetBSD.)

Re: Retro collectors are uncovering hoards of old data

#14

Post by SavantIdiot »

I bought a MacSE at an estate sale and found a bunch of half written stories [novels?] (they weren't very good).

I'm so glad everything is password protected & encrypted on my machines now. Wouldn't want some rando to buy my funeral estate and find personal stuff on my hardware. My next of kin are my parents so I don't think they'd be very savvy about destroying drives.

Re: Retro collectors are uncovering hoards of old data

#15

Post by reaperducer »

p_l wrote: post #11

I once managed to rescue AlphaServer 255/233 from being parceled out by unknowing e-waste dealer. Spent a bit of time trying to connect everything, connected the serial terminal that came with it, flipped the power switch expecting empty machine... ... Lo and behold, I see it autobooting into heavily customized VMS 6.1 (first patch level that could boot on it), that turns out to be special Blockbuster Video version w…

I have a bunch of 8" floppy disks I got from fleaBay that have student records from a community college in California.

I have no use for them, so I just have one framed on the wall for nostalgia's sake.

Re: Retro collectors are uncovering hoards of old data

#16

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

I still hold out hope that the very first game I ever made, in middle school using HyperStudio[0] on a Mac running At Ease for its desktop, will turn up on archive.org some day.

[0] It may have been HyperCard with some extensions for color. I distinctly remember color.

Re: Retro collectors are uncovering hoards of old data

#17

Post by progman32 »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #6

Not retro, but when I worked for a consulting company, one of our clients had just acquired a small electronics company. He gave me all the information he had about the product we were supposed to update. He did a data dump without looking closely at the files because one of the flash drives had a bunch of invoices issued by the previous software consulting company so we had a pretty detailed view into what they were…

I once pulled an image of the CF card in my work's coffee machine (darn thing runs Slax linux...). I found a well-appointed home directory full of the developer's web history. Yes, they copy from Stack Overflow too.

Re: Retro collectors are uncovering hoards of old data

#18

Post by II2II »

I collected old machines about 20 years ago. It was very common to leave the data intact back then, even if it was being donated to a thrift store (where sale to an unknown party was assured) rather than being dropped at a recycle depot (where there was an assumption the machine would be destroyed).

There was no real dilemma regarding what to do with the data, it was wiped without peeking. I figured out that looking for interesting software was unethical early on, since launching some software will expose you to the prior owner's data automatically (e.g. databases) while browsing the directory structure for such software can open the perilous doors of curiosity. Not only that, but it is very rare for the data to require preservation. Most machines are intentionally disposed of. The cited case of a stolen computer is likely rare (though I suppose that depends upon one's sources and the market value of the machine).

I was recently given an old machine by someone I was barely acquainted with, data intact. He said he didn't mind if I looked, just destroy the data if I pass it on to someone else. I took the liberty to create bootable diskettes from the existing software since I haven't had a vintage computer in well over a decade. There was no question about how to handle the data though: even with permission, it had to be destroyed.

Re: Retro collectors are uncovering hoards of old data

#19

Post by blueflow »

A few month ago i took a machine from a scrapyard. That machine fell into my eye because its PSU had a female C13 socket in addition to the male C14 one, which i took as indication for an AT (not ATX) machine.

It turned out to be a pentium with ISA ports. I cleaned it, upon booting, i noticed the CMOS battery needed replacement. The CMOS was part of the dreaded Dallas 1287 RTC. Cutting it open and attaching another story, but i did it. Reading the required disk geometry from the label, i was able to configure the CMOS correctly for the disk to boot.

The yield: It boots into a windows 95 desktop, with a naked women with spread legs as a desktop background. I guess i recovered someones porn collection.

Re: Retro collectors are uncovering hoards of old data

#20

Post by neilv »

I used to salvage a lot of discarded PCs (use the parts, refurbish, etc.).

I quickly decided on a rule to immediately wipe any hard drive, and destroy any drive that couldn't be wiped.

One reason is that I'd been involved in some early online privacy discussions, so I had an awareness that snooping might be invasive.

But if curiosity might tempt me to rationalize away the nagging sense of possible invasiveness, there was a second reason...

I never wanted to technically be in possession of, say, a private photo that a 17.9 year-old took. Nor ever see anything worse than that. Thus, immediately pull and DBAN/destroy any hard drive.

Given that I eventually salvaged around 100 PCs, the private photos scenario didn't seem too unlikely.

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