SCP-3458
rating: +16+x

Item #: SCP-3458

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedures: To avoid causing irreparable damage via hard impacts or static electricity, SCP-3458 is to be stored in a 15.5 x 20.5 cm Antistatic shield bag in a climate controlled storage locker kept at 20° Celsius when not in use. Any room used for testing of SCP-3458 must be kept around 20° Celsius; to facilitate this, all instances of SCP-3458-2 must be pre-equipped with cooling fans.

Description: SCP-3458 is a standard hard disk drive, configured for use in most modern computers as a storage device; its familiar shape, size and weight renders it almost completely indistinguishable from other hard disk drives, though several key details once printed on the label adhered to its protective cover have been scratched off with a sharp-edged tool1. These missing details are speculated to have pertained to SCP-3458’s storage capacity, the rotation speed of its internal disk and its original manufacturer.
When the primary storage device of a standard desktop computer is replaced with SCP-3458, the computer itself, hereafter referred to as SCP-3458-2, boots into a simplistic user interface with icons for various applications and games, in front of a wallpaper that depicts a picturesque but as of yet-unidentified coastal region.

SCP-3458 readily accepts and stores files imported via external storage devices such as flash drives, as well as those downloaded from the internet through the use of the pre-installed web-browsing program. However, all attempts to export or upload its files to any medium of storage have been unsuccessful due to SCP-3458 halting the process with the error message: “Insufficient Permissions”.
Once the use of SCP-3458-2 has been maintained for a period of time sufficient for a “profile” of the user to be constructed (presumably from program usage and browsing habits, but this has yet to be confirmed), all normal processes are shut down and the user interface is replaced by a plain text screen, reminiscent of those displayed by most operating systems in the event of a crash or fatal error. A disk check follows this, in which the names of files stored within SCP-3458, such as “HAPPIEST_MOMENT”, “JUDGEMENT_LAPSE_(X)” and “LIE_(X)”, flicker across the screen until the scan is complete.

At this point, a form of verdict regarding the user is rendered, seemingly based on their life choices; more often than not, all remaining text on the screen disappears and the message “Bad Sectors Detected - Initialising Factory Reset” is displayed, an MRI scan later revealing an advanced state of amnesia in the user’s brain. Tests have revealed that from the moment the aforementioned message is displayed, the afflicted user’s memory is completely and irreversibly wiped - all attempts to restore the user’s memory with family photos and personal documents have been unsuccessful, as has the administration of prototype mnestics and SCP-███.

In exceedingly rare circumstances and never in the case of D-Class personnel, the completed scan is followed by an alternate message: “Minimal errors detected - Well Done”. As the usual effects of SCP-3458’s verdict do not present themselves in test subjects who are shown this message, it can be assumed that said subjects have never committed any major transgressions against society at any point in their lives. These few subjects have since reported feeling great pride and newfound self-confidence off the back of SCP-3458’s quantified, seemingly unbiased analyisis.

Discovery: SCP-3458 was recovered from a Mr. ███████ who had, in turn, loaned it to a friend who was in the process of building a desktop computer and required a temporary storage solution. When Mr. ███████ returned to his friend’s apartment two weeks later, assuming that the permanent storage device he had ordered online had been delivered and that SCP-3458 would be ready for him to collect, he found that his friend had since been evicted, reportedly for not having paid his overdue rent2. The landlord also informed him that the friend had not taken his personal possessions with him, claiming that he “didn’t want to steal anything”. Mr. ███████ offered to call his friend and ask him to collect his belongings but was met with rejection of the idea that they had ever met or been friends. Speculating on a correlation between his donation of SCP-3458 and his friend’s memory loss, Mr. ███████ handed SCP-3458 in to the local police station, from whom it was promptly confiscated by an undercover member of Mobile Task Force Iota-10 (aka “Damn Feds”).


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