Missing Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar's hard drive was found in the Susquehanna River in Lewisburg, about 100 yards from where his laptop was discovered in July, and is now being processed by the FBI in California.

"It's not absolutely confirmed, but I can say it is the right model hard drive, right type for Gricar's computer and was found approximately 100 yards from the laptop, so we are pretty confident it is his hard drive," Bellefonte Police Department Cpl. Daniel Holliday said.

Holliday said the hard drive was found about three weeks ago and was turned over to the Pennsylvania State Police Department in Milton. The hard drive was about 10 to 15 feet from the riverbank and was found due to receding waters in the river.

Bellefonte police Det. Tom Thal said Pennsylvania State Police took the hard drive to a crime lab in Harrisburg for examination, but turned it over to the FBI after the initial analysis.

"They probably felt if they did any more to it, they would do more harm than good," Thal said. "Now we are just sitting back keeping our fingers crossed that something on the hard drive will give us a clue to what happened or where Mr. Gricar is."

According to a Bellefonte police press release, FBI forensic computer specialists are processing the hard drive in California in a "clean room," a sterile environment specifically for computer work.

Holliday said Bellefonte police have not received any information regarding data recovery and have no time frame for when results will be available.

Tony Gricar, Ray Gricar's nephew, said he was told the hard drive was not in good condition because of the length of time it was in the water.

"My hope is that the corrosion is not that bad, and that it will yield some information," he said. "Hard drives can be pretty resilient ... I have some optimism that they might be able to get something [from it]."

Holliday said the mere discovery of the hard drive does not give police a new direction, but the information on the hard drive could lead to a break in the case.

"Banking information, e-mails, some kind of journal may lead us into a scenario," Holliday said. "That's the information we are hoping to get off the hard drive, to take it from a missing person case to whatever direction the case will go."

Gricar said until they see the information on the hard drive, its discovery could easily imply any of the scenarios.

"It is tough to speculate. It is a difficult situation because of so few details," Gricar said. "But this is the first time we could get anything in this case that might give us direction."

Patty Fornicola, Ray Gricar's girlfriend, said she has no ideas as to what police could find on the hard drive.

"I have no way of knowing. Like everything else, it could be 50/50," Fornicola said. "We won't know until it's done -- my favorite thing, waiting."