…First off I would like to clear the air and say that this is not a stolen or otherwise ill-gotten HDD.
It belonged to my eldest brother. Suffering from [suspected, but never diagnosed] paranoid schizophrenia, he took his life on April 12th, 2012. My mother, middle brother and I drove from NS to ON for the funeral-like thing we were planning on holding for him.
Upon arrival, I’m informed he chose to move to Calgary, and that that was where he decided to do what he did. I was told he would be cremated in Calgary and his ashes and personal effects would be sent ASAP via Expedited Shipping.
Now, at his apartment in Toronto, there were stacks and stacks of back-up discs from his computer… I’ve since combed through and sorted most of, if not all of it. Journal entries, finished and unfinished music, all kinds of art both digital and physical that he scanned in to have an image of.
My issue is… Along with his ashes, came a 160GB iPod classic, filled to the brim with his favourite music. As well as a Nintendo DS lite, modded to play any and all games. His guitar, which is now sitting on a stand in my room, proudly being displayed.
And a 500GB external Western Digital HDD. Passworded with SmartWare drive locker. I have no idea what is on this thing. But it is absolutely KILLING me to find out. I’ve had a ton of friends who are either IT guys, or just “nerds”, and they say it isn’t possible to hack it. And Google has returned 0 relative and useful results.
I feel I have to repeat… I do not intend to do anything nefarious or malicious. My goal here is to seek some insight, for both myself and the rest of my family, as to the last musings, ponderings, thoughts, feelings my brother had. Because I may have 70-80GB of data from the stacks of discs I’ve scoured through… But I know that he saved anything and everything on this drive. And I need to see and experience it. All.
TL;DR: Brother killed himself, left behind a **bleep** ton of technological devices, one of which is passworded. It would thoroughly ease the grieving process [at least, I’m thinking, or hoping rather, that it does] and will ultimately lead to the betterment of my mother, my brother, his father, his sister, and I.
Any help would be greatly, greatly appreciated.
