Do repair techs look through HD contents? 1

[Allen455]

Hi, sorry if this post is miscategorized, I'm not really sure what forum it best fits in...

My basic question is this: If I have some very sensitive data on a laptop hard drive being sent in to Compaq for repairs, how worried should I be about that data getting read by a worker at the repair facility?

I have a Compaq laptop, still under warranty, with a defective motherboard or power supply (it made an electrical "pop" and turned into a brick a few days ago). So I'm sending it in for repair or replacement, and luckily I have all my data backed up just fine. It's XP Pro/FAT32, with a password, so it's not like they're going to "accidentally" boot up into my stuff, but it wouldn't exactly be hard, either.

I'm feeling pretty stupid at this point for not using whole-drive encryption, let me tell you.

The hard drive itself is in this extremely stubborn caddy (with stripped screws!), so I can't just put it in an external enclosure and delete the data that way... Argh!

If you have any ideas/thoughts/experiences, I'd appreciate it SO much! Thanks in advance!

 

[hpwizzard]

In most companies that handles any kind of products containing sensitive data from the IT business, the employees must sign a confidential/privacy treaty towards customers and the public.
By signing that treaty the employee agrees not to disclosure any non public information obtained from customers or the company they work for to any third party or non issue related persons.
As an example I can tell that I work for HP and deal with printers. Every now and then customers has to send us print samples showing the issues they have for further troubleshooting. Sometimes these samples can contain sensitive information that should not reach the public.
Also at HP we have such agreements or terms of employment that ensures customers info be kept and treated in a safe way.
I hope this explains a bit about the discretion terms in IT business.

 

[Allen455]

Thanks hpwizzard, your post is very helpful!

Umm, the data in question is not exactly trade secrets, actually it's multimedia of an embarrassing/personal nature. So I'm not so much worried that the information will leak to a competitor, but more just that anyone would see these multimedia files.

Wow am I glad that this is anonymous.

So... if the problem is totally with the power supply/motherboard (I'm 100% certain of this), what are the odds, do you think, of a technician taking the liberty of snooping around the hard drive?

Thanks again! I have learned my lesson like you wouldn't even believe...

 

[biglebowski]

You could always take the hard disk out connect it to another pc and image / format it then put it back in your machine and send it off.

Or keep a close eye on Utube for the next couple of weeks.

When I was born I was so suprised I didn't talk for 18 months

 

[Allen455]

I really wish I could hook it up to another pc, but the drive is in this weird extra metal casing, that prevents me from plugging it in to anything except the special plug inside the laptop itself.

I may be reduced to crossing my fingers and checking Youtube every 15 seconds... ugh.

 

[Johnthephoneguy]

That metal casing should come off with a few screws I believe.

JohnThePhoneGuy

"If I can't fix it, it's not broke!

 

[hpwizzard]

Why not just take the harddisk out then and keep it during the repair ? To my knowledge you don't need a harddrive to run any diagnostics on a laptop when it comes to power issues on booting up.
Any PC or laptop will usually boot (read the BIOS and initialize) regardless whether a harddrive is seated or not. It will not complete the boot into a OS but stop after the initialization and say something like "Unable to boot - no system present"

 

[biglebowski]

sending it back minus the hdd may invalidate your warranty so I would check on this before considering it.

If your laptop is backed up you could always format the disk in situ using a program like killdisk which you can boot off a cd.

When I was born I was so suprised I didn't talk for 18 months

 

[stduc]

This was how a certain Paul Gadd aka Gary Glitter was caught wasn't it? He returned his computer to PC World for repair.

<joke>Allen455 Your IP has been logged & the police are on their way </joke>

 

[biglebowski]

Ignore my last post I've just read why you're sending it back

Mcflyyyyyyy!!!!

When I was born I was so suprised I didn't talk for 18 months

 

[PRPhx]

First off, how badly are the screws in the hdd assembly stripped????? Can you use a small straight blade to GENTLY turn the screws?? Do the screws come out of the case just a bit so that maybe you can get a pair of needle nose pliers on a srew and turn it????

I would definetly try getting the screws out. Who stripped them in the first place?

Nor would I trust ANYONE with things you don't want to be made public, signed agreements or not. At times, it's GOOD to be paranoid.

 

[moonguppie]

Most of the time when I work on a user's machine either at my day job for a large corp or for my residential/small business computer repair business, I do not bother with information that does not concern the computer's problem. I have run into situations at with user's home PC's that thought they had recieved a virus from malicious adult web sites, and I told him not to worry. It's pretty common place and we're all adults. I wouldn't worry.

A little knowledge is dangerous.

 

[biglebowski]

He returned his computer to PC World for repair.

Isn't that an oxymoron (not a stupid person that eats stock cubes)

When I was born I was so suprised I didn't talk for 18 months

 

[stduc]

Isn't that an oxymoron

No, because you can return it for repair. Expecting to be repaired is entirely another matter.

BBC article re GG & PC World

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/517604.stm

 

[Sympology]

We're one of the Major Compaq aproved repair cntres in the UK. The chances are they won't be bothered to look, they simply don't have time. Bear in mind, your's may be 1 of a hundred they receive each day.
They do tend to prefer the HDD in when running diags, but they will run their own tools and won't even bother to get into windows.
I wouldn't worry about it to much....




Only the truly stupid believe they know everything.
Stu.. 2004

 

[macten88]

If you can't remove the screws for that hardrive, I would consider drilling them out. Get your stuff deleted and send it in explaining that you had sensitive corporate info on the drive and had to delete it. Pay for a new hardrive 'caddy' if need be.

Come to think of it, there may be a set of 'easy outs' for that size screw. You drill a hole and screw the 'easy out' in. Then you use a wrench to turn it ccw and the stripped screw should come out. I would look into it....

 

[macten88]

this is what I'm talking about. I don't know if they make anything small enough for you application:

http://bradystools.stores.yahoo.net/scexset5pisp.html

you might have to drill them out...

 

[wahnula]

Are you sure those stripped screws are not Torx or star-tool screws? Given the condition of the PC I would not stop short of grinding them off with a Dremel or drilling them out and getting that drive out of there. Connect to an IDE 2.5" to 3.5" adapter (or put in USB case) and delete all questionable files and run a file shredder program on the directory. Of course empty the recycle bin and shred all those files too. Disable System Restore first.

I NEVER snoop into another person's PC during repair (no time for that, plus I respect privacy) but that does not mean there are not bored (or weird) PC techs out there that do exactly that. I would think long and hard (no pun intended) about letting something that intensely personal leave my house under ANY circumstances. If necessary, you can always buy another Compaq HD holder and HDD.

Tony

 

[firewolfrl]

ten to one they are gonna trash the drive and put a new one in...or they will wipe the drive and have the default OS installed like when you first received the computer.

as for sensitive pics....most if not all RMA centers for big companies have privacy policies in place to protect the consumer....that means that unless you have child porn on your computer and they happen to see it in the lst stage of repair...they will ignore they data in the process of fixing the computer...they have certain diagnostics that do not even go into the data of the harddrive to troubleshoot....if as you say the computer has issues they will not spend much time on the computer...they will diagnose the issue and replace the parts that went bad....and they will try to keep the diagnostics to less than 45 minutes or less....and there is a good chance that the diagnostics tech will be working on at least 20 or 30 computers at a time in a row and according to the diagnostics computer. the computer will be routed to the next tech that guts the computer and tests indiviual parts till he/she finds a bad part...usually the data is never seen in this process. then the computer goes on to the next tech that boots the computer and if it does not boot and the original drive is still in the computer...it either gets replaced or the software tech reloads a clone of the original install OS that will require everything you did brand new...most of the time you get your computer back without your original data

an RMA center can work on up to and over 1,000 computers in a couple of days time....and rotate a repaired computer out of the RMA system in two days

 

[wahnula]

Still, ya never know...not paranoia, just cautious.

Tony