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> I have seen routine maintenance being used to establish obstruction charges just to intimidate possible witnesses

You're talking about Hillary Clinton, right? That's literally one of the arguments they used against her.



Was it really routine maintenance to BleachBit an entire server after you receive a subpoena from the FBI?


>Was it really routine maintenance to BleachBit an entire server after you receive a subpoena from the FBI?

I would hope so, since presumably the storage devices on that server would either be resold or sent to a dump.

The info on those storage devices (assuming backups/existence of that data elsewhere for government data retention purposes) should not be let out into the wild.

In fact, I (and I don't work/exist in areas with confidential data) have a dozen or so hard drives that sit in a closet as I don't have the interface cards (any more) to hook them up and securely delete the data.

Eventually I'll probably purchase a bulk eraser[0], but until then, those disks will sit in my closet as my business is my business and no one else's.

[0] https://www.amazon.com/Degausser-Electricity-Required-Mainte...


I understand why people want to erase hard drives permanently and totally. My point was more about, isn't it a little weird to do so after the FBI says they want to look into the status of said devices.


More info on that degausser. https://www.mediaduplicationsystems.com/sd-1-hard-drive-tape...

On sale, now only $3,990.00 (previously $6,999.99).


If the OP only has a dozen drives to wipe, I think a drill and some liquid to pour over the platters would be a sufficient alternative.


>If the OP only has a dozen drives to wipe, I think a drill and some liquid to pour over the platters would be a sufficient alternative.

An interesting idea and one I hadn't considered. Thanks!


lol, dude, just take out the screws and toss the platters in the oven. you need software to retrieve data, but not necessarily to destroy it.

I made a cool spiral chandelier out of fishing wire and hard drive parts. The platters don't chime as harmoniously as I had hoped, but it still worked out great - and I have enough super fridge magnets to last the rest of my life.


Yes, it really was. The FBI investigated and found as much.

https://www.denverpost.com/2016/09/03/fbi-report-platte-rive...


> In July, FBI Director James B. Comey said while the investigation revealed potential violations, “our judgement is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.”

In other words, crimes were probably committed but the FBI dropped the investigation because they figured that no prosecutor would file charges in the case.


I don't see this really addressing the fact that deleting data permanently after you find out the FBI wants to look at those devices is a bit weird.


A plausible justification was given. It makes sense. It also has nothing to do with Hillary's decision-making. You can call all the people involved liars, or just deny the facts that have been presented to you - but the facts, as presented, do portray innocent behavior.


Same thing occurred to me. The Bleach Bit BS.


No, I was not talking about any politically driven case at all.




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