Date: 1996-08-30 Master Joyce. | Link
At issue was whether the defendants were required to produce a computer hard drive. The court found that “the plaintiff is not entitled to production of the hard drive itself. They are entitled to production of only the relevant electronic data which is resident on that hard drive. As I understand it, a computer hard drive is simply a medium on which data is stored on a semi-permanent basis in the form of electronic impulses. It may be thought of as an electronic filing cabinet which contains electronic files, each of which in turn contains electronic documents. The defendants are obliged to list all relevant documents of whatever form (including electronic documents resident on computer hard drives). In my view they are not required to list the entire contents of nor are they required to produce their entire electronic filing cabinet any more than a party is required to list or to produce the complete contents of its steel filing cabinets which house documents which are in paper format. In my view the plaintiff has not shown any proper basis to require production of the actual hard drive. The plaintiff is entitled to know with certainty, however, that all relevant electronic data which is resident on the hard drive has been disclosed. Accordingly, I order that the defendant Mr. Delcea provide an affidavit verifying all of the files still resident on the computer hard drive which relate to the matters in issue.”