In a tale that seems stranger than fiction, a man's 12-year quest to recover a lost fortune in Bitcoin has come to an abrupt end. James Howells, a British IT worker, has been forced to abandon his search for a hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoins, worth an astonishing $800 million…
Hard drives, except for helium-filled ones, actually have an air hole in them with a filter attached to it so they can keep enough air in the drive so the heads can properly fly over the disk surface. Completely possible that moisture ingress would be an issue after years of sitting in a landfill in who knows what. It is a darn tiny hole though.
Yea but only one way to find out. Making massive assumptions when 700 mill is on the line seems dumb. Never give up.
Oh yeah, I’d still try too. Once rescued a phone from a saltwater beach. It sat there buried for 6 months ish in saltwater. Was able to extract all the data from the MicroSD card and find the owner to give them their lost pictures and such. Would still try, despite knowing the science.
Unrelated, f cell manufacturers for removing MicroSD card slots.