Data Recovery Tool Development

[rchadwick]

I've been thinking of developing my own Data Recovery tools, and realized it might make a nice open source type of project. Does anyone know of a good place to discuss Data Recovery tool development? I'm mainly thinking of Software tools, But we all need hardware tools too . I was thinking of a HDD Password cracker as a first project. Entering the PW should be easy software-wise (I already have some source code), and hopefully resetting the drive after 5 tries will be easy too. Making a HD Power switcher would be relatively easy too, if needed. After that, the rest should go together easy. I don't know how long it would take to crack a PW, but I'm encouraged by that $1000 hardware solution (Can't remember it's name offhand) that claims to brute force a PW.

[dobrevjetser]

Sounds nice, Chadwick!
I've somewhere seen a project for a 8031 controller that could access a harddisk; this in combination with a simple mosfetswitch could do the job.
I'm interested.

Dobre

[mr_spokk]

Hi there guy's
There is a nice S/W product available for that, if you like to do some reverse engeneering
http://www.allservice.ro/forum/viewtopic.php?t=104

The bad thing is, that it will also destroy all the data on the drive...

Regards

Bosse

[dobrevjetser]

Very nice Spokk !
Have to give it a look.

Dobre

[rchadwick]

Thanks Mr Spokk! That guy had an interesting description. It seems it's possible to crack passwords. He mentions a hardware device to reset the drive, but in the description of what you get when you buy, it's not mentioned. I assumed Power Cycling the drive would be too slow, as I'm sure it will take significant time for the drive to become available again. I need to check the specs, but I'm assuming the IDE Bus has a reset line. Maybe all that's required is a simple circuit that toggles this line and resets the drive, without resetting the rest of the computer obviously
I'm guessing (Hioping?) that the Secure Wipe is something the author decided to add, and not some limitation?

I've come across some source code too for microcontrollers. It might be interesting, but not sure it's needed. We may get faster speed using a PC. Or maybe not? I have a handheld HD copier, and it's basically a PC (186 if I remember right) running at around 4 MHz. I don't recall the transfer speed tho..

[mr_spokk]

Thanks Mr Spokk! That guy had an interesting description. It seems it's possible to crack passwords. He mentions a hardware device to reset the drive, but in the description of what you get when you buy, it's not mentioned. I assumed Power Cycling the drive would be too slow, as I'm sure it will take significant time for the drive to become available again. I need to check the specs, but I'm assuming the IDE Bus has a reset line. Maybe all that's required is a simple circuit that toggles this line and resets the drive, without resetting the rest of the computer obviously
I'm guessing (Hioping?) that the Secure Wipe is something the author decided to add, and not some limitation?

I've come across some source code too for microcontrollers. It might be interesting, but not sure it's needed. We may get faster speed using a PC. Or maybe not? I have a handheld HD copier, and it's basically a PC (186 if I remember right) running at around 4 MHz. I don't recall the transfer speed tho..

Hi rchadwick,
The hardware tool seems only to be for the DriveOn tool....and with that tool it seems possible to read the files after an unlock...thats why you need pwr down and up routine.
EraseOn looks only to be a S/W solution, but erase's the data on the drive when you perform an unlock.

Bosse

[Starling]

Hi there guy's
There is a nice S/W product available for that, if you like to do some reverse engeneering
http://www.allservice.ro/forum/viewtopic.php?t=104

The bad thing is, that it will also destroy all the data on the drive...

It doesn't crack password. It just sends standard ATA SECURITY ERASE command

[Starling]

Brute force password cracking is extremely ineffective for hard drives.
According to ATA standard after 5 unsuccessful attempts drive goes into FREEZE mode and you need to reboot it, so it will take 2-5 seconds to try 5 passwords
Dictionary attack can be used but still it's too slow and no guarantee...
Not to mention that there exist some useless tools already. Like this one for example: http://www.vogon-investigation.com/pass ... lution.htm

[rchadwick]

I'm finding the description a little confusing, I'm guessing because the author is from Romania, and may not be good at English. There appears to be two separate programs. One cracks the password, and the other does a SECURE ERASE command. But then the author talks about PW speeds with the SECURE ERASE version. I've re-read it a few times, and need to re-read it a few more

[rchadwick]

I know that 5 tries locks the drive, but what about trying 4, then doing a software reset of the drive?

I suppose this will be a lot easier to do if we knew it was actually possible/practical.

[Starling]

Wow. Software reset didn't work but hardware reset did on Maxtor and Seagate without reboot.
Interesting...

[rchadwick]

So, how long does it take for the drive to be ready after a Hardware reset? Maybe this is doable?

[mr_spokk]

Hi there guy's
There is a nice S/W product available for that, if you like to do some reverse engeneering
http://www.allservice.ro/forum/viewtopic.php?t=104

The bad thing is, that it will also destroy all the data on the drive...

It doesn't crack password. It just sends standard ATA SECURITY ERASE command

Hi Starling,
The first program DriveOn (with H/W dongle) uses ATA Security Unlock command to crack the password
The second program EraseOn is using ATA Secure Erase Command.

Bosse