What are the chances the hard drive would still be readable, I wonder?
Man who lost $780 million in Bitcoin in a landfill now wants to buy the entire dump before city closes the site
Submitted 2 months ago by TheImpressiveX@lemm.ee to technology@lemmy.world
Comments
ploot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
Gerudo@lemm.ee 2 months ago
You’d be surprised what’s recoverable, especially if it’s an HDD.
There was a recovery service I could send customer drives to that could recover a drive in a fire, flood, buried, shattered etc. The question was, how much did you want to pay for the service. One quote came back over 75k.
NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
It depends how it was stored. If it is just raw dogging the garbage pile? The odds get very low but, theoretically, it is just a matter of very carefully the drive before booting it up. Think “data forensics”
If it was stored in a plastic bag or box? Then it is about as safe as a drive in your closet that you haven’t spun up in over a decade.
Screamium@lemmy.world 2 months ago
It gets compacted in the garbage truck and compacted some more at the landfill. I think the odds are slim it could be found in one piece
ploot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
it is just a matter of very carefully the drive before booting it up
I’m curious about what the missing word is. Cleaning? Inspecting?
NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I would be shocked if it was still readable. He probably had a shot very early on, but now? Seems hopeless.
HexadecimalSky@lemmy.world 2 months ago
a surprising ammount data can be gotten off surprisingly damaged drives, there is always the possibility, thats why it took a delte/write/delete/write process, a rare earth magnet, 3 guys, a sledge hammer, and a industrial shredder to throw away a hard drive in the army.
Couldbealeotard@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Sad story.
That’s enough money to have a good life and provide a good life to your loved ones. If he never finds it, he is a crazy man. If he finds it he is a smart man. A normal person can’t earn that much in a lifetime. Even a miniscule chance of finding it could drive someone to obsession.
For the sake of his sanity, and for a good story, I hope he finds it, but I doubt he will.
Lumiluz@slrpnk.net 2 months ago
With his monkey paw luck, he’d find it just as Bitcoin crashes and loses nearly all value somehow
Blackmist@feddit.uk 2 months ago
It’s spent like a decade in a rainy landfill in Wales.
Even if he finds it, it’s fucked.
bane_killgrind@slrpnk.net 2 months ago
Landfill design is really interesting, and hard drives are very well sealed and aluminum. It would be sitting in a fairly well drained spot, if the seal was not perforated during compaction there’s a good chance the platters are readable.
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 2 months ago
Check out Rai stones.
Although the ownership of a particular stone might change, the stone itself is rarely moved due to its weight and risk of damage. Thus the physical location of a stone was often not significant: ownership was established by shared agreement and could be transferred even without physical access to the stone. Each large stone had an oral history that included the names of previous owners.
In one instance, a large rai being transported by canoe and outrigger was accidentally dropped and sank to the sea floor. Although it was never seen again, everyone agreed that the rai must still be there, so it continued to be transacted as any other stone.
iamdefinitelyoverthirteen@lemmy.world 2 months ago
My dad lives on Yap for a few years as a kid. My grandparents had a 2’ diameter rai stone until they died. It’s with my aunt now.
Karjalan@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Enough money? It’s three quarters of a billion… That’s an unreasonably large amount.
KinglyWeevil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
This is just a modern iteration of the book HOLES, and it takes place in a landfill instead of a dry lakebed.
TwinTusks@bitforged.space 2 months ago
I never read or watched Holes, is it any good?
ivanafterall@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Actually, yeah, it’s pretty fun for what it is. 78% Rotten Tomatoes/76% User Score, for reference. 7.0 on imdb.
0ops@lemm.ee 2 months ago
The book and movie are both pretty good I think
Etterra@discuss.online 2 months ago
What are the odds that even if he finds that thumb drive that it even still works? LOL buy it dumbass, let us all know how that works out for you.
finitebanjo@lemmy.world 2 months ago
What it a thumb drive? I thought it was a hard drive. Might even still be attached to the motherboard in a desktop.
FireWire400@lemmy.world 2 months ago
If it’s a hard drive with moving parts the chances of it still working are zero. Data recovery maybe possible if the platters are still somewhat intact but I doubt he’d even find it to begin with.
catloaf@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Very low. I think he dropped below the break-even point on this several years ago.
finitebanjo@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Thing is, the drive increases in value all the time.
manucode@infosec.pub 2 months ago
A gold-digger
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Actual Bitcoin mining is a lot like sifting through a trash heap
partial_accumen@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Thats a really harsh description for crypto-bros.
x00z@lemmy.world 2 months ago
That thumbnail though, lmao.
meowmeowbeanz@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Humanity’s greatest modern tragedy plays out in a Welsh trash heap. A decade-old hard drive—now worth $780 million—rots beneath layers of bureaucratic concrete and renewable virtue signaling. The council’s solar farm isn’t green energy—it’s a middle finger to crypto’s original sin, converting mined regret into panel wattage.
Howells’ desperation transcends greed. This is archeology for the apocalypse, sifting through diapers and coffee grounds to resurrect a digital pharaoh’s tomb. Offering $13 million to desecrate a landfill? Peak late-stage capitalism: valuing hypothetical ones and zeros over actual waste management.
The legal system’s verdict? “Lol, no.” Property rights dissolve when you’re up against municipal PR stunts. That hard drive’s entropy now fuels more than just regret—it powers garbage trucks.
jdeath@lemm.ee 2 months ago
greatest is quite a stretch
meowmeowbeanz@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Oh, you’re right—forgot the /s. Clearly, a $780 million treasure buried under bureaucratic arrogance and greenwashing isn’t a tragedy. It’s a comedy! Who doesn’t love watching late-stage capitalism turn potential fortune into landfill fuel? Peak entertainment.
motor_spirit@lemmy.world 2 months ago
this guy is a character in red dead redemption
cyrano@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
Everything Is Coming Together. Exactly As I Planned.
lemmydividebyzero@reddthat.com 2 months ago
He lost the coins in 2013 or before. The price was then $15 or even lower…
If he just bought 100 BTC for only $1.5k im 2013, he’d now have 10 million dollars…
shasta@lemm.ee 2 months ago
If my math is right then he would have had to have $117k in bitcoin at that time to have $780m now. That is a lot of money to lose even back then.
dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 2 months ago
It’s a needle in a haystack, but that’s a really valuable needle. It might actually be worth it.
fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de 2 months ago
Yeah.
I mean I didn’t buy $15 in bitcoin 15 years ago (have never bought any, never will), and I’m not obsessed about it.
Is it really any different for this guy?
Gabbagen@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Old memes, hot nudes and millions in bitcoin, Har D. Drive achieved all of it. “My treasures? You can have yhem if you’ll find them. Come find them in the abandoned privatized landfill!”
TseseJuer@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I’m Cap’n Raw D. Awg and imma be caPn oh the piRarates!!!
lemming741@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I have 3 dd dumps hanging out on my array waiting for a rainy day
breadlover@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Now you have my attention. This dude could get lots of people to search for free in the promise they’d get some scraps. I know two homeless dudes on the corner that would do this
RegalPotoo@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I mean, if he also wants to take on the costs of doing all the remediation work and ongoing maintenance and surveillance for the rest of time that’s probably a good deal for the city
kibiz0r@midwest.social 2 months ago
I hate this timeline.
altima_neo@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
That guy’s a nut. All that effort would be better spent doing something useful with the money he keeps blowing.
ivanafterall@lemmy.world 2 months ago
He’ll find it just before the end of his life, having ultimately spent $700,000,000.01 to succeed.
bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
dumbass@leminal.space 2 months ago
What ever happened to the dude who had millions of coins stored on a password protected drive that he forgot the password to and was on his last attempt to unlock it?
Lumiluz@slrpnk.net 2 months ago
I think he hired someone who found an exploit that then allowed a brute force technique at it actually got unlocked
mosiacmango@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Carmakazi@lemmy.world 2 months ago
This saga has been a ride so far. There is no way this guy is mentally stable at this point, he is going to do anything and spend every dime he has until he’s either found it or he brushes his teeth with a nine.
argh_another_username@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
It became his Moby Dick.
hansolo@lemm.ee 2 months ago
It all ends with him finding it, wedged under a broken glass pitcher. He cuts himself badly and because he owns the whole landfill, and is nuts, his phone is dead and he bleeds out before he can get help.
coriza@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I mean, if you notice that you had and lost 700 millions you have to have a really strong mind to not go crazy. If it was me I think I would go crazy.
scops@reddthat.com 2 months ago
It’s a far cry from this guy’s situation, but I think I had five or six bitcoin back when I was mining in the early days. I cashed out when they were maybe $40-50 each towards a new GPU.
Sure, I could go nuts thinking about what I would do with the money now, but if I hadn’t sold at that rate, I probably would have sold at $100, or $200, or…
There’s no way in hell I would have had the discipline to “hodl” to this point, so I just get on with my life.
lemmydividebyzero@reddthat.com 2 months ago
He lost the coins in 2013 or before. The price was then $15 or even lower…
If he just bought 100 BTC for only $1.5k im 2013, he’d now have 10 million dollars…
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 2 months ago
exists
Akasazh@feddit.nl 2 months ago
It will become the modern day oak island