But Newport City Council said previously: "Newport City Council has been contacted multiple times since 2013 about the possibility of retrieving a piece of IT hardware said to be in our landfill site.
A council spokesman added: "The landfill has been in exploitation since the early 2000s and is coming to the end of its life, therefore the council is working on a planned closure and capping of the site over the next two years.".
An infuriated James attempted to work with Newport City Council to retrieve the tech but said "they don't want to know.".
But a judge threw his case out last month and Newport City Council, who own the tip, revealed part of the site will now be shut down.
But Judge Keyser added James' mission was akin to looking for a "needle in a haystack" after the hard drive was lost 10 years ago.
