 FACT: Hanks lawyer hands Viktor an envelope, which Viktor opens and  finds to contain a hard drive. The hard drive has its top cover  removed exposing the disks and head mechanisms. A hard drive  operates at extremely tight tolerances, such that the inside must be  kept extremely clean. A speck of dust getting inside of a hard drive  could ruin it. So, of course, the scene where Viktor receives this  hard drive takes place on a sandy beach. Theres no way that a hard  drive that was in such an environment with its insides exposed to  the sand and the dust and the ocean mists would still be usable  after that.