In Deus Ex: Human Revolution, I hack just about anything I come across. More than once, I've come across a situation where a data store was located behind the server, as can be seen in the following screenshot:
Since capturing the server successfully terminates the hacking attempt, I have never been able to get to such data stores. I'd attribute this to some randomization mishap when the hacking minigame is generated, but my impression is that there is a finite set of hacking minigame templates (as I've come across specific layouts more than once). If so, it would make no sense to create layouts with unreachable data stores (from a gameplay perspective).
Am I looking too much into this, or is there some sort of trick to getting these data stores?
Best Answer
You can't directly capture it, but you can get credit for it.
When you capture all of the diagnostic subroutines in a system, you automatically get access to all the data stores and the hacking mini-game ends. So in the example in the screenshot you posted, if you were to capture the diagnostic subroutine node (the red one), the hacking attempt would end in success, but you would automatically receive whatever bonus was contained in the data store beyond that subroutine (and all the others, too). In some puzzles, going for the diagnostic subroutine(s) is easier than going for the I/O node.
Throughout my play, where my OCD tendencies compelled me to hack every single hackable thing I found, I never ran into a single system where you couldn't get all of the data stores either by traditional means or by hacking the diagnostic subroutines.