[Misc] Need technical help decoding hard drive

[Guest]

Hello everyone!

Long story short trying to figure out a way to access copies (if they exist) of information (documents) that was saved to a Kyocera Multifunction hard drive.

Without getting into too many details (we are currently in litigation) it appears that some former employees made a lot of copies on our company's printers before they left. We suspect it was copies of our confidential business information. I have had the hard drives removed and tried accessing the information, but it appears to be encoded.

Does anyone know how to access this information? Is it possible to have it sent to Kyocera so they can decode the information for us?

Thanks for all the help!

[SPBE]

Re: Need technical help decoding hard drive

The HDD does not save everything you do. The only documents that will be on the HDD would be those saved directly to it.

[robscopyr]

Re: Need technical help decoding hard drive

If they were not storing or using the hard drive for the prints you are S.O.L.. Those hard drives act as RAM not ROM unless specified to save a copy to the HDD.
From the look of your profile you are not even a technician, or you are fairly new to the forum. If you are not a tech, and you are in litigation, would recommend that you take it to the nearest authorized dealer to see if you can get that information off of your machine.

[RandomQuestions]

Re: Need technical help decoding hard drive

The HDD does not save everything you do. The only documents that will be on the HDD would be those saved directly to it.

Thanks for the reply! Do documents that were scanned count as something that would be saved to the HDD? If so, then this might be worth pursuing.

[SPBE]

Re: Need technical help decoding hard drive

No not if you were scanning to email, FTP, or SMB. The only way it would be on there is if you scanned to the HDD itself.

[RandomQuestions]

Re: Need technical help decoding hard drive

If they were not storing or using the hard drive for the prints you are S.O.L.. Those hard drives act as RAM not ROM unless specified to save a copy to the HDD.
From the look of your profile you are not even a technician, or you are fairly new to the forum. If you are not a tech, and you are in litigation, would recommend that you take it to the nearest authorized dealer to see if you can get that information off of your machine.

Thanks for the quick reply. You're right, I'm not a tech, so I'm flying blind a bit.

The device was also often used as a scanner. Would this information be stored on the hard drive?

I've tried calling Kyocera directly, but I think I might have been asking the wrong questions. When I contacted them initially I asked if there was any way for me to access the information which was met with a definitive, "no." Maybe I should call them again and ask if they can do the investigation for me? I imagine there has to be some way to access the information. It makes sense, however, that they would not be willing to help some random guy on the phone access the information.

[RandomQuestions]

Re: Need technical help decoding hard drive

No not if you were scanning to email, FTP, or SMB. The only way it would be on there is if you scanned to the HDD itself.

Hmmmm, yeah, from what I remember they were scanning the documents to email.

[john_551]

Re: Need technical help decoding hard drive

Hmmmm, yeah, from what I remember they were scanning the documents to email.

If the documents were scanned to email, it might be worth while to look at your mail servers to see if there is a copy of the sent email there.
If you are using an exchange server, you would have access to it, otherwise you could contact your isp, if that is who hosts your email.
It might be faster to get in touch with the email host, than trying to decode a hard drive.

[RandomQuestions]

Re: Need technical help decoding hard drive

If the documents were scanned to email, it might be worth while to look at your mail servers to see if there is a copy of the sent email there.
If you are using an exchange server, you would have access to it, otherwise you could contact your isp, if that is who hosts your email.
It might be faster to get in touch with the email host, than trying to decode a hard drive.

We're not that robust and my technical knowledge is a bit lacking...We use gmail as part of our corporate accounts which is why I know they were scanning and sending documents to email. Unfortunately, my understanding is that if an email is deleted from Google's servers, it's gone. Also they also used private emails as the addressee from the copier. Not sure if an ISP would have access to this information?

[KenB]

Re: Need technical help decoding hard drive

What you are asking for is EXACTLY what our entire industry is under the proverbial microscope NOT to be able to do.

There has been a HUGE push over the past few years to make sure that this type of information is NOT available, not just to casual users, but to anyone. People actually pay us good money to make certain that their data is encrypted and completely erased once it is no longer needed.

While I can certainly appreciate your position, (assuming you are who you say) I highly doubt that you will get much, if any, cooperation from anyone in finding what you want.

Good luck in your efforts, but I am better than 99.9% certain that you will come up empty.

[RandomQuestions]

Re: Need technical help decoding hard drive

What you are asking for is EXACTLY what our entire industry is under the proverbial microscope NOT to be able to do.

There has been a HUGE push over the past few years to make sure that this type of information is NOT available, not just to casual users, but to anyone. People actually pay us good money to make certain that their data is encrypted and completely erased once it is no longer needed.

While I can certainly appreciate your position, (assuming you are who you say) I highly doubt that you will get much, if any, cooperation from anyone in finding what you want.

Good luck in your efforts, but I am better than 99.9% certain that you will come up empty.

Yeah, I knew it was a bit of a long-shot. Having this information would make a lot of sense in certain contexts (i.e., law enforcement), but I'm not sure if there will be too much cooperation in a civil matter.

Still worth looking into though.

[10871087]

Re: Need technical help decoding hard drive

trying to figure out a way to access copies (if they exist) of information (documents) that was saved to a Kyocera Multifunction hard drive.

Not that it's going to matter but I'm just curious, what is the model number of the machine?

The HDD does not save everything you do. The only documents that will be on the HDD would be those saved directly to it.

That is correct

Good luck in your efforts, but I am better than 99.9% certain that you will come up empty.

That is probably also correct

[RandomQuestions]

Re: Need technical help decoding hard drive

Not that it's going to matter but I'm just curious, what is the model number of the machine?That is correctThat is probably also correct

The model number is KM-5050.The most information we were able to pull was that there was an inordinate number of copies done right before the employees gutted the office and set up a competing business. I was hoping the hard drive might show them making copies and setting up shop.

[10871087]

Re: Need technical help decoding hard drive

The model number is KM-5050.The most information we were able to pull was that there was an inordinate number of copies done right before the employees gutted the office and set up a competing business. I was hoping the hard drive might show them making copies and setting up shop.

I'm afraid you're going to be SOL on the HDD adventure.

[RandomQuestions]

Re: Need technical help decoding hard drive

I'm afraid you're going to be SOL on the HDD adventure.

Stink...I guess on a related note, do you or anyone else have suggestions on settings for these copiers that will ensure if something like this happens in the future, we will be able to have the information saved to the copiers?