I'm no expert on data storage (or anything else for that matter), but I do know that it's gotten thousands of times smaller, cheaper and more sophisticated over the decades, and that the SD card works like the cathode ray tube, like those in old analog TV sets, which is utterly fascinating.
I got to pondering on how it works. I Googled it, but only found one article relating to the process that law enforcement uses. It was titled something like: "How do Police Retrieve Deleted Files?" Of course they didn't really say how it works, just that it does. I didn't expect to find anything, but I tried. Basically they wrote an entire article just to tell us what we already knew, and that they had some really cool and really expensive shit to retrieve the data.
The article basically stated obvious things, like how doing bad things online is bad, and that deleted files can indeed be retrieved, and used against the bad guys. We got it. The gist of the article pretty much was "Well, it's a bitch, but we can do it." Okay then. Seeing as how the article was non-information, I was forced to try and figure it out on my own.
Right away I'd assume that SD cards and other storage devices have way more storage capacity than is stated. Either that, or each unit of storage can hold more data that they say, but it's probably the former. I'm assuming that the files are compressed, or made smaller, which decreases resolution but allows more data to be stored in the same amount of space. Even so, there has to be storage space, and unless something else is at work, it indicates that there should be a good bit more storage space than is stated.
If it's "something else," then what could it be...some technology we're not aware of? It couldn't be some variation of the "Cloud," unless an SD card could send and receive signals. Maybe it has its own teeny-tiny WiFi unit, with an even teeny-tinier sticker that says "WiFi Inside." Who knows...I wouldn't be too surprised at anything these days. Does the data leave something like a "digital footprint" or a "shadow" of itself, and the deleted data can be reconstituted from that? Is it some sort of strange magic? Elephino, but it still has to be stored, and that takes storage space.
I'm not positive, but I think that when they hook up a phone to retrieve deleted files, they hook up the phone with the card inside, rather than just the card, although I'm guessing they can do that too. I guess the phone is like what a CD player is to a CD- just a way to "play" the media. In other words if there is extra storage space, I wouldn't think it's on the device, plus I'm sure the phone is damaged sometimes, and then it's like the Black Box in a plane...you don't need the whole plane just to read the Box, and that's usually a good thing. Man, I say stupid shit sometimes, but I'm just trying to look at all angles.
So what is the mysterious mechanism at work here? Is it simply extra storage space, which is the obvious answer, or is it some technology we don't know about? It's all like magic to me anyway...the idea of having something akin to a microscopic analog TV inside of a tiny SD card blows my feeble mind. If it's just extra storage space, then technically they're not lying, because we still get to use all of the listed storage space, and I guess there's no need to say "64gb for you, 128gb for us." Interesting. Maybe I'll search again, because I'd really like to know how it works. Don't do bad things online.
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