Depends on the drive. Glass or other ceramics were used at some point, but anything that is not magnetic should work. As long as it can be made completely flat and will withstand the spin speed.

When I went, if I ever saw one it was the equivalent of those cheap travel kettles. I think the average person there just doesn't use it enough to justify getting a good one.

I'll give them props that they are going to refund owners for the bit they can, I would have expected most stores so to go "oh well! we have been ordered to remove it, sucks to be you."

That's the thing, that background can also look like a harsh sunlight, which would typically give you a blue tint. Your brain has to guess which is right.

That sounds roughly related. I see ones like: excel file broken!!! Actual issue: it's dark so the computer screen is too bright and when they put sunglasses on due to the brightness, they can't read the numbers. Solution is to turn the lights on.

Garenteed they uploaded something unsavoury in all that data. That is like the only way to get your account instantly closed by uploading files.

Saw a YouTuber recently have the same issue after they uploaded a WhatsApp chat dump to google drive to share it with a translator for story. Turns out there was stuff in it that got the Google account blocked, which included the channel.

Have a look for a local one, you'll probably have an upfront cost for analysis, but they should be able to give you a cost estimate after they look at it. Good ones will always give you the opportunity to say no and stop trying, either due to cost or if you want it back.

I would think you can get the analysis for less than 150 USD or equivalent.

That said, if it was grinding or screaming when you turned it on, the data is probably already gone.

The first half sounds so true to me. Like it was an intern that really wanted a replica set, but instead of using the same platform the company was using, hacked together something running on Linux. Ofc they didn't tell anyone how it worked, and everyone else knew windows server so no one poked it.

It used to be running on a spare pentium 4, but was virtualized as no one knew why things stopped working when it was turned off

The printed sheets on the wall looks a bit too good as well.

For me it's this and also unlimited nudge, no need to reposition it as you want it just one step over the nudging limit.

Saving it for what? If they are not using it anyway it's not going to get used later either.