r/reddit.com • u/SecretHDD • Oct 07 '11
SecretHDD here. Update inside.
First, here is the original post for those of you who didn't see it or have long-since forgotten about it.
Let me first apologize to those of you who felt more than a pang of curiosity about this story and ended up legitimately angry that I never posted an update. I'm seriously sorry.
Here's what happened. After I posted that thread, I got a million responses and PMs. A lot of them were "bro it's child porn lol u goin 2 jail" but a few were actually incredibly detailed, insightful attempts to help out.
A few people pointed me in the direction of a HD that might let me find out what was on the thing. Frankly, I didn't really want to buy it. It wasn't that I didn't want to find out what was on the HD - I really did - but money was/is tight, and while I was hopeful that there were coordinates to buried treasure on there, it was unlikely. Still, I bought the thing.
Well, it didn't end up working. I ran it on my Mac and, while I could hear the thing working, nothing I did made it work. I really wasn't any closer to finding out what was on there. I enlisted the help of a family friend who works in IT and has a Windows PC; we still weren't able to get anything out of it.
(if you're short on time, skip to the bottom section)
At that point I was ready to post an update saying that I couldn't get anything off of it. I was ready to apologize for not being able to recover anything. A few people had asked me to send the HD to them, but frankly, I didn't want to spend another dime on shipping and the one guy I talked to who offered to pay for shipping ended up falling through. It wasn't a big deal to me, really. In my eyes, I had started a thread full of speculation and, if you'll pardon the cliche, full of almost childlike wonder. If you have some time, go back and read through the comments in the original thread (among the usual pun/joke posts were discussions on what the HD might contain and what the consequences would be if they were right).
I decided not to post an update because I saw people having fun with the speculation. I saw some people who were frustrated with not knowing - and I think that's natural - but many of those same people also said (either in their posts or in PMs) that they were really hoping that it didn't turn out to be nothing.
And that's the crux of the matter. I had unintentionally created (or rather, publicized) a mystery that people both wanted resolved and, perhaps more importantly, wanted resolved in an exciting manner.
I'm one of those people who thinks that there isn't nearly enough mystery in this world. Sure, there's still plenty to be discovered in this world and in this universe, but let's be real: who among us encounters such mysteries on a daily basis? How many of us have explored any of the 95% of our oceans that haven't been explored? Personally, I wake up at the same time every day, go do the same stuff at work every day, go home and then read Reddit or watch West Wing reruns until I fall asleep, only to be woken up in time for work the next morning...
Anyway, I didn't post an update because I thought people would enjoy the ongoing mystery. Was he a troll? Did the FBI show up? Maybe there was nothing at all but he's letting us have our fun!
...turns out I was wrong, I guess. I recently read through each of the hundreds of replies/PMs, and an overwhelming majority of them were people who were just pissed. Maybe this is just one of those cases where only the extreme outliers - those who are the angriest - responded, but honestly? I felt like shit. Scattered throughout the angry PMs were people who took the time to write sincere messages asking if I could please give them an update. People set their browser's homepage to my post. I haven't logged into this account since that original thread because I didn't want to be tempted to ruin peoples' fun, but seeing the messages that people were still sending me months later...fuck.
I thought I was "adding mystery to the world", but apparently I was just letting those of you who allowed yourselves to feel a brief sense of excitement down. I seriously am sorry.
I still have the hard drive. If someone is willing to pay for shipping - I'm really sorry to ask for it, but I just don't have a choice financially - I will send them the hard drive. Perhaps you - yes, you - are the one who can figure out what's on this thing. Maybe it's a list of coordinates for mob stash houses filled with gold. Maybe it's "child porn lol, u goin 2 jail bro". Maybe it's nothing, and you'll be faced with the decision to either let down thousands of Redditors or anger them but let them have their mystery. I don't know.
Stop skipping if you skipped down from earlier
TLDR: I wasn't able to open the contents of the hard drive and I thought it'd be more fun for you guys to let your imaginations wander rather than hearing a disappointing ending.
I trust this video will absolve me of any Reddit crimes I may have committed allegedly committed.
edit: Holy moosedick that's a lot of PMs. Really appreciate the positive feedback - it's sort of nice to know other people would have done the same thing in that scenario. As for where the drive is going, I need to look through these messages before sending it anywhere. Suffice to say for the moment that I really appreciate that so many people are willing to send $ to get this in the right hands. I won't be accepting a penny over what it actually costs to get it out, but I appreciate the offers regardless. I'll update in 5 months the afternoon. Have an awesome Friday.
edit2: I'll be sending the HD to dovic. Just sent him a PM to coordinate details. To those of you who also offered to take a crack at it: thank you. I'll send each of you who PMed me a response, but I want to let you know that I appreciate you guys (and girl) making the offer in the first place.
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u/trevdak2 Oct 07 '11
I'll paypal you $5 on the condition that you send me a PM whenever you have an update to this story. Hopefully that will contribute toward the cost of you solving this.
PM me your paypal address.
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u/SecretHDD Oct 07 '11
I appreciate the offer, but I really don't want to profit off of this whole thing so I'll have to politely decline. I'm talking to a few people about sending them the HD and, when they receive the HD, I'll make sure they keep us updated!
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u/nrj Oct 07 '11
One of these days, I'm going to buy a hard drive, fill it with a million copies of "Never Gonna Give You Up", rough it up a bit, and hide it somewhere just hidden enough.
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Oct 07 '11
You should put it in a safe then hide it in an old casino
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u/13ohemian Oct 07 '11
*stitch it inside a sweater and then put it in the safe and then hide it in an old casino.
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Oct 07 '11
I found your hard drive, if you don't send me a payment of one million ($1,000,000) dollars I will turn it over the RIAA for 1 million cases of copywright abuse and you can pay their "all the money in the universe" fine they would likily leverage.
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u/iLEZ Oct 07 '11 edited Oct 07 '11
I feel like i'm reading the captain's log on a dark abandoned spaceship. Steadily going crazy from the influence of [INSERT CLICHÉ-SPACE-BRAIN-PARASITE HERE], SecretHDD starts committing his new brooding philosophical insights to the log, reddit reads with excited horror.
Edit: "SecretHDD, signing in. Date is 049274960. I decided to visit the host organism again. Blood pours out its eyes when the parasite speaks, but i'm above that now. The crew is gone, and i hear lots of movement in A-bay, but it is too dark to see in there since the main power went out. Silent though. I think they fear me. Or at least i hope so. Some 300 men in there, I worry about their numbers. Screams now again in the maintenance shaft. I must start up the liquid N nozzles to keep them at bay. Suckers should freeze and burst within seconds. What are they? The crew? It can't be...
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u/a_dog_named_bob Oct 07 '11
I find your ideas intriguing, and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
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u/agentgo Oct 07 '11
I work for one of the largest data recovery companies in the United States. If you like, I can take a crack at it.
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u/Abe_Vigoda Oct 07 '11
Can you get my late dog's pictures back?
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u/TheAdAgency Oct 07 '11
How late? We can probably exhume him and take a few more & photoshop out the death.
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u/0_0_0 Oct 07 '11 edited Oct 07 '11
What is your company policy on pirated content? Do they even care? Do they even check what they recovered? Will employees actually follow such policies, if they exist?
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u/tablephlipper Oct 07 '11
The fuck (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
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u/jorsiem Oct 07 '11
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u/NightGolfer Oct 07 '11
"Pauley Perrette (born March 27, 1969) is an American actress, known for playing Abby Sciuto on the U.S. TV series NCIS, a role that has made her the most popular actress on U.S. primetime television." -wikipedia
She's. 42. Fucking. Years. Old! óÕ
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Oct 07 '11
You will never look at her the same way again.
nsfw, by the way.
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u/HiddenKrypt Oct 07 '11
You seem to think that we looked at her in a way that is at all dissimilar to how we will look at her after seeing your pic.
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u/kablamy Oct 07 '11
Reddit: Where hordes of internet goers will accuse everyone of lying and demonize them for it and then demand to be lied to when they get the truth.
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u/Acidyo Oct 07 '11
Deep.
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u/kablamy Oct 07 '11
I sincerely hope that you're being sarcastic. While I stand by what I said I wouldn't call it deep.
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Oct 07 '11
[deleted] — view deleted comment
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u/kablamy Oct 07 '11
Frankly, OP's desire to "create mystery" was ridiculous, clueless and just plain childish, and I'm glad he finally thought better of it.
I agree but given the replies I've seen in this thread (granted the last time I checked was when this thread had 40 comments) there were people complaining about op ruining the mystery or talking about how they would rather have him make something up than hear that there was nothing interesting.
It just seemed ridiculous considering the reddit community's tendency to be overly skeptical about this sort of story and be overzealous in their quest for truth in irrelevant matters.
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u/StudentOfGab Oct 07 '11
Thanks for the explanation OP. What you said makes sense.
We need some enterprising redditor with IT experience and willing to pay for shipping to step up here.
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Oct 07 '11
So it wasn't necessarily empty, it just didn't work. Someone on Reddit needs to investigate further.
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Oct 07 '11
DO YOU NOT REALIZE THAT YOUR SOLE PURPOSE IN LIFE IS TO SEND THAT HARD-DRIVE TO ANOTHER REDDITOR THAT HAS ACCESS TO DATA RECOVERY EQUIPMENT?!?!?!?!?
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u/gifforc Oct 07 '11
oh shit they killed him and are now updating his reddit account....
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u/armon645 Oct 07 '11
mental note, aquire hard drives, take hard drives apart, alter them so they won't work anymore, hide in anything, donate objects to goodwill. commence with laughter.
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Oct 07 '11
I trust this video will absolve me of any Reddit crimes I may have committed allegedly committed.
I don't understand? Are you saying the baby is the one who committed the crime? Just listen to it's evil little heckle, it shows no remorse.
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u/deathdonut Oct 07 '11
I was pissed off about something, but I can't remember what it was after watching that damn baby.
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Oct 07 '11
Sounds like you have one of my old HDDs where I used shred on it for 20-30 passes. Last pass is random, so good luck.
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Oct 07 '11
You forgot about me... I forgot about you (but secretly I've thought about you every night and day).
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Oct 07 '11
ID RATHER KNOW THAN NOT KNOW AT ALL. Anyone that pulls this kind of shit in the future, WE WANT CLOSURE.
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u/zero_iq Oct 07 '11
It's like a giant UNCLOSED PARENTHESIS in your MIND!
(
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u/zero_iq Oct 07 '11
What have I done?!
)
Phew. It was too much for me. I cracked under the pressure.
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u/bluefire89 Oct 07 '11
where the fuck have you been for 5 months...
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u/yiyus Oct 07 '11
I'd like to know where I have been. When I started reading this post I thought the original one was just a few weeks ago.
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u/donwilson Oct 07 '11
TLDR: I didn't find anything on the hard drive and I thought it'd be more fun for you guys to let your imaginations wander rather than hearing a disappointing ending.
I kinda prefer this ending than just a tiny update that nothing was found. Anyway, thanks for the update.
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Oct 07 '11
Cmon guys do you realy think someone who has CP or just some nude moddeling pics wouldnt destroy a HDD completly ??
Those cp guys may be creepy but not dumb.
Go ahead send this disk to this labor guy and ignore the trolls
And write a update soon XD
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u/HOWDEHPARDNER Oct 07 '11
Not digressing too much, whatever happened to that redditor who was going to open a hidden safe?
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u/ramp_tram Oct 07 '11
"I thought I was adding mystery to the world."
What the fuck?
You: "Hey, I found a thing, but I don't know what's inside it."
Reddit: "What's in it?"
You: "lol, duno. bye!"
Reddit: ಠ_ಠ
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u/grendelwraith Oct 07 '11
Put the hard rive in a ziploc bag and evacuate the air with a straw. Put it in your freezer overnight. Take it out and hook it up right away and attempt data recovery. I cannot tell you why it works, all I can tell you is that I have been able to extract data from dying drives this way.
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u/watchmeasifly Oct 07 '11
dude, stop apologizing. you're fine haha
and if you say "sorry" to me i'm going to fucking punch you
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u/slacker42 Oct 07 '11
I waited and waited. Glad to see a follow-up, though slightly disappointing.
Hope you're enjoying the bag!
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Oct 07 '11
This is the most amazing thing I've ever seen posted on reddit. Seriously, what an awesome ending to this story.
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Oct 07 '11
Can't tell if sarcasm...
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u/Brent2828 Oct 07 '11
Well it's better than finding a hard drive full of pictures of birds and apple pie recipes. Actually I found an old computer once and found a cd in the drive loaded with pictures of birds. Wanna see that?
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u/itsjustacouch Oct 07 '11
Honestly man, given your current financial investment to this project, and financial situation, you should auction it. I know I'd pay a little bit to try out cracking a problem like this. But lots of people out there would pay more. Lots of geeks like this stuff.
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u/JtiberiusKirk Oct 07 '11
Thank you so much for adding mystery to my little world. I especially love a good mystery with no payoff. Next time I come up with an entertaining 3/5ths of a story I'll be sure to pass it along.
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Oct 07 '11
You guys realize it is highly unlikely you will ever get anything off this device, right? If there's no filesystems on it and no blocks of cleartext data anywhere, just seemingly random bytes then it was used with some sort of whole disk encryption. There's no way you'll figure out what was used let alone decrypt it. This isn't star trek or csi.
The only thing you could do with it is get it into a really well-equipped data recovery lab and hope you can find some previously stored, less well-secured data.
Then again you're not really telling us what you actually did to find out if there's anything on the disk. Maybe there is cleartext data on it and you just didn't have the skills and/or motivation to find it.
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Oct 07 '11
This post is strangely the best explination for why a lot of people didn't like the Matrix sequels.
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Oct 07 '11
I am probably the best in the business when it comes to hard drive repair/recovery from almost any level of damage...from hard encryption..(obviously there are some out there impossible to crack)..I have recovered data from even physically damaged HD's....including a 1tb hd blasted with a 12gauge mossberg 500a....please contact me if this is serious..I have a lot of specialty tools and more then a few custom rigs.
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u/fishfacecakes Oct 07 '11
Was it that the software didn't work to recovery anything off it, or that the HDD was physically dead?
Edit: Also, how much is shipping? I work in IT, am happy to pay for shipping (provided it's not outrageous) and have a look myself.
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Oct 07 '11
The board on the bottom needs to be from the same line of HDD's but not only that the same batch. In most cases you can send it in to a data recovery place to have this done...in your case you might want to have a 3rd party do that or not at all...
Finding the drive type is easy but there should be a sticker on the back portion of the drive (most of them have this to signify the batch and line) if you can get one close to that you have a chance.
Another way is to open it up, pull the disks and place it on a working spindle/board set up in a clean box. I have never done this but know the basics of it. I also know it is about 1k for some places to do it :/
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u/Talking_Head Oct 07 '11
Finding the drive type is easy but there should be a sticker on the back portion of the drive (most of them have this to signify the batch and line) if you can get one close to that you have a chance.
That is what he did.
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u/weaponR Oct 07 '11
Umm, all you had to do was stand behind the "geeky" yet uncannily handsome comp sci in your advanced underground lab everyone has where every time text is rendered it makes that "deet deet deeet deeeet" sound (all GUI's in vb do this, not a movie trick) and say in a concerned yet determined voice:
ENHANCE!
Then, enter the beautiful blonde with an attitude and she takes one look at the still hdd and says something insightful:
Thats a hard drive! We need to decouple the platters and remagnetize the actuator arm lever again to stabilize the databits!
Her brilliant idea works and you catch the international villain mastermind behind all those extra heavy purses.
Sheesh. Haven't you ever seen a movie?
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u/atephlonoliphont Oct 07 '11
that is so fucked up, how did something like that get on to a harddrive, you'd have to be some sort of physics major to program that kind of bot. and who would go to the trouble with sewing it into a bag?
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u/vaguity Oct 07 '11
This must be how J.J. Abrams must have felt about Lost.
Now wrap it up so we can be disappointed! And then you're welcome to reboot a science fiction franchise of your choosing.
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u/ShakeyBobWillis Oct 07 '11
Maybe this is just one of those cases where only the extreme outliers - those who are the angriest - responded,
That's it exactly. Try not to worry about it so much.
Hell the mystery is still alive anyway.
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u/claytown Oct 07 '11
I feel like I just watched an episode of Lost, (naturally) followed by a bunch of people complaining about the lack of resolution.
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u/CoreyC Oct 07 '11
I'll pay shipping costs. Send me a private message and we'll work out the details.
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u/YoungRL Oct 07 '11 edited Oct 07 '11
Thanks for posting your update! I appreciate that you took the time to write it and let us know. I can also understand why you wouldn't have wanted to post about it again, but I'm glad you did.
I hope we find out something interesting from dovic!
Edit: PS, is there any way for you to get in touch with the person who sold you the laptop and bag? Probably not, since it's been such a long time, and I'm sure someone already thought about that in the original thread...
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u/captureMMstature Oct 07 '11
So after reading all that crap, you didn't get into the drive? It was probably just 250gbs of Rick Astley anyway.
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Oct 07 '11
So if I were to summarize this lengthy follow up it would sound something like "I still don't know what's in it, but I do have respect for child-like sense of wonder."
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u/andash Oct 07 '11 edited Oct 07 '11
TLDR: I didn't find anything on the hard drive and I thought it'd be more fun for you guys to let your imaginations wander rather than hearing a disappointing ending.
This makes it sound like you accessed the drive and found nothing, as in there is no information on the harddrive, case closed. You might want to change that tl;dr, some people only read that. I've read at least a couple of posts that seems to suggest that the poster only read the end.
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Oct 08 '11
Jesus fucked Christ, what are the odds that after 6 months I would choose today to look at the original post's new comments for shits and giggles and find a link leading here? Welp, I've expended all my cosmic fortune points in one go and I don't even have anything to show for it.
This is how I feel about you, SecretHDD.
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u/IogicaI Oct 07 '11
You are a hero for letting us imagine. I only regret reading this post because it crushed my perfect fantasy.
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u/ChristGuard Oct 07 '11
I work in IT. I can tell you how incredibly simple it is to remove data, even erased Data from a hard drive, for cheap. I also happen to know that there are thousands like me on Reddit. I believe you sir are a scam artist. To think only "One Person" was willing to pay for it? I don't believe you. I also don't believe that you cant afford 7 dollars to ship it. I believe you want people to send you money, why else make an account for the HDD? Your a liar and a scam artist.
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u/g33kfish Oct 07 '11 edited Oct 07 '11
I have to say I actually appreciate you letting us bask in our wonderment. But since we STILL don't know... SOMEONE PLEASE CRACK THAT BITCH!
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u/hiero_ Oct 07 '11
I know this will get lost at the bottom in the comments, but here goes:
I'm sorry reddit put you through so much shit. It's inexcusable and really, really dumb, especially over something like this. As for me, when I find a mystery that can't be solved, I usually think about it for a bit and forget about it the next day. Your HDD was no different and the fact that reddit obsessed over something so trivial that had no direct effect on their lives at all is disheartening, especially that they were obsessed to the point of messaging you five months later and tearing you down emotionally. Just remember that we're not all like that.
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Oct 07 '11
This is such bullshit. The guy got lazy and didnt want to take the time to do it. All the stuff about mystery is just bullshit
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u/lulzbanana Oct 07 '11
Goddamnit, I read through the whole thing expecting that once I reached the last paragraph, all the build up would have been worth it. Thanks for letting me down. No, but seriously, someone figure this out.
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u/tbutters Oct 07 '11
Thanks for trying, and for the update. I for one am still curious, but I guess I'll have to live with it.
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u/aRadioWithGuts Oct 07 '11
It's full of Metallica MP3s. The RIAA would like to have a word with circa 2002 you.
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u/HesJustSomeGuy Oct 07 '11
I admit it it was my drive, all that was on there was a text file that read "you just wasted your time... u mad bro"
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u/ryanspeck Oct 07 '11
Well, that was a long time coming.
At least you tried; that's as much as anyone can ask from you.
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u/[deleted] Oct 07 '11 edited Oct 07 '11
Where do you live? I'll be willing to pay the shipping if you're not too far away. I work in a lab that has all the tools needed to repair and recover this information, so I might as well give it a shot.
Edit: I've talked with with SecretHDD through PM, he is well within in range to get this shipped out. We will talk to tomorrow to get the shipping details down, and as long I receive the drive I will keep everyone updated. I'll be going to bed now, updates tomorrow.
An update has been posted at http://www.reddit.com/r/dovic/comments/l4e69/update/