this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2025
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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.
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
garbage truck compacting isn't really that much, check out what it looks like when they dump it. lots of stuff doesn't get exposed.
The drive would have been fed to the incinerator where I live. We don't use a dump, we have a huge waste to power transfer station.
Compacting at a landfill however ….
Dumped out of the truck into probably another sorting area where machinery pushes through it potentially prying out large salvage pieces for scrap, or destructively breaking it apart by driving through and over it.
Over, and over, and over, and over.
Different landfills have different policies/procedures.
Like I said, the odds aren't great. But if there was ever any chance of finding it, this isn't the kind of system where things are getting cubed every step of the way. And once there is a layer or two of trash above it (making finding said drive nigh impossible), it is going to be pretty protected from even heavy duty constructicons driving over it.
I'm curious about what the missing word is. Cleaning? Inspecting?