http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24542368/&GT1=43001

Amazing that a hard drive can survive the break up of the shuttle and even more amazing that they can recover the data.

But this part really got me. Just think about the computer you are using now compared what was on the shuttle.

Edwards attributes that to a lucky twist: The computer was running an ancient operating system, DOS, which does not scatter data all over drives as other approaches do.

That guy is the man! Well, can't dump the computer in the lake anymore ;)

Pretty neat.

They can recover data that has been overwritten numerous times too. There is some way that they can read the data that is all recorded at a certain magnetic level, bypassing what is currently written. It's how the FBI proves that people had things on the computers in order to convict them.

K

every NASA space ship, satellite, Mars rover, and deep space probe uses NASA's own proprietary software- no windows or OSX or Linux- to take up precious processing time and power or crash at exactly the wrong time.
i think the Hubble telescope is running a 386 processor with something like 128k of memory, and that is after it got upgraded 6 or 7 years ago.