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What about your data when computer's being repaired?

Reluctant Traveller

By Reluctant Traveller
in IT and Computers

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Reluctant Traveller Rookie Member

Reluctant Traveller

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The time has come for my desktop to go in to a shop for an upgrade.
There is a SDD for C drive and 2 x 1 tb drives with my music / films / Tv shows.
I don't feel inclined to share my 2 media drives ( booo!! hiss !! )????
It's all backed up on external drives, so delete / format is an option but there are recovery apps available.
So what would be a way to make the data unavailable to the technician? 

 

 

drives.jpg

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ardsong Senior Member

ardsong

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You want an upgrade on the O.S., though that is easy do it yourself, or

You want an upgrade on SSD, processor, motherboard etc ??? 

You could encrypt all files on your HDD's , so no one except you will be able to read. 

 

I would indeed be more worried on private documents, stored logins/password etc, which could be stored on the SSD. 

 

Edited by ardsong
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Antonymous Silver Member

Antonymous

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Well first of all, you are on the right track to be concerned about data theft. I have a Thai family member who is a technician running one of those repair shops and I discovered that downloading/copying data is commonplace. Anything that looks interesting will be copied. I know, it is reprehensible.

 

My solution is to have a technician come to my house and fix things in front of me. This costs more of course, but is worth it for peace of mind.

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robblok Star Member

robblok

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30 minutes ago, Srikcir said:

Some antivirus s/w has a "shred" deletion.

Shredded data cannot be recovered.

https://tiptopsecurity.com/how-does-digital-file-shredding-work/

 

Yes it called shredding data.. but basically its just deleting data and then copying new data on top of it and deleting it again. Anyway I have never needed it but if the OP is so worried.. why not take the 2 harddisks out.

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connda Star Member

connda

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I take my hard drives out when I need repairs and give the tech a copy of Linux or Windows on a USB drive that they can boot to.  If their repairs work with an OS 'on a stick' then they'll generally work when the hard drives are put back in although you may have to install the hardware driver for new hardware yourself. 
 

Edited by connda
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atyclb Platinum Member

atyclb

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1 hour ago, NCC1701A said:
3 hours ago, atyclb said:

the repair techs dont care about farm animal sex videos

right. they star in them.

 

 

would an amateur video involving a bkk soi 7 beer garden gal be considered bestiality?

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khunPer Diamond Member

khunPer

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9 hours ago, Reluctant Traveller said:

It's all backed up on external drives, so delete / format is an option but there are recovery apps available.

Low level format, but as other says, just take the drives out, if you have some secrets there...????

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bendejo Ruby Member

bendejo

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10 hours ago, atyclb said:

the repair techs dont care about farm animal sex videos

 

Wanna bet?  ????

 

OP: Get yourself an external USB HD, 4 Gb, and back up all the data on your system.  You should do this anyway, regardless of this upgrade adventure. 

But I don't know what you mean by upgrade.

 

Personally I would never be really comfortable running a system I know someone else had full access to unless I scrubbed the disks and reloaded my own stuff myself; you have no idea what could have been added to your files.  You may trust your tech guy, but then there could be a nephew who is known for his sense of humor....

A few years back I one day found some unusual activity on my computer and discovered that some sort of sleeper malware was activated (I think I was running XP, shows how long ago it was).  It was hidden somewhere on the  C drive with the name "GoogleUpdate".  I got things cleaned up, then went and looked at my backups -- turned out that crud had been there for MONTHS, and none of the AV/malware scans detected it.  However when it kicked in (started to download zip files and installing something, it looked like a dating site for especially ugly people) both my AV (Avast, I think) and Windows Defender detected something and the two programs froze each other.

 

 

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Reluctant Traveller Rookie Member

Reluctant Traveller

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Great response, sorry for not giving a fuller picture - the upgrade would be to install a new CPU Intel i7 replacing the i5 which keeps on burning up with newer games.  Also the USB 3 ports are not being recognised.

Detaching the HD sounds good, would that effect the bios or windows explorer - maybe another problem?

Since the days of floppy discs, any porn and private data has been on external drives, no worries. ????

thanks folks.

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manarak Ruby Member

manarak

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52 minutes ago, Reluctant Traveller said:

Great response, sorry for not giving a fuller picture - the upgrade would be to install a new CPU Intel i7 replacing the i5 which keeps on burning up with newer games.  Also the USB 3 ports are not being recognised.

Detaching the HD sounds good, would that effect the bios or windows explorer - maybe another problem?

Since the days of floppy discs, any porn and private data has been on external drives, no worries. ????

thanks folks.

 

unless the i5 is a very weak one, it should be ok for games.

It would probably make more sense to upgrade RAM and graphics, possibly replace the CPU fan if the i5 runs into temperature problems.

about the data, the easiest solution would be to take the drives out before bringing in your computer.

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The Deerhunter Gold Member

The Deerhunter

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20 hours ago, robblok said:

There are also apps that delete the data... and then put new data on it and delete again. This way the old data cannot be recovered. So if you really want to delete it permanently you can do it that way. 

One of those is called eraser.  The old version was easy to use.  The new version not so easy.  I think it is still free.

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robblok Star Member

robblok

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1 hour ago, Reluctant Traveller said:

Useful comments, extra cooling is an option, however the rig is about 5yrs old now.

thanks

setup.jpg

Depends what you want to spend... but really a new VGA card would help the most and SSD.. especially if its for games. 

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wgdanson Silver Member

wgdanson

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7 hours ago, bendejo said:

 

Wanna bet?  ????

 

OP: Get yourself an external USB HD, 4 Gb, and back up all the data on your system.  You should do this anyway, regardless of this upgrade adventure. 

But I don't know what you mean by upgrade.

 

Personally I would never be really comfortable running a system I know someone else had full access to unless I scrubbed the disks and reloaded my own stuff myself; you have no idea what could have been added to your files.  You may trust your tech guy, but then there could be a nephew who is known for his sense of humor....

A few years back I one day found some unusual activity on my computer and discovered that some sort of sleeper malware was activated (I think I was running XP, shows how long ago it was).  It was hidden somewhere on the  C drive with the name "GoogleUpdate".  I got things cleaned up, then went and looked at my backups -- turned out that crud had been there for MONTHS, and none of the AV/malware scans detected it.  However when it kicked in (started to download zip files and installing something, it looked like a dating site for especially ugly people) both my AV (Avast, I think) and Windows Defender detected something and the two programs froze each other.

 

 

And did you find  partner ???????   lol

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atyclb Platinum Member

atyclb

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9 hours ago, bendejo said:
19 hours ago, atyclb said:

the repair techs dont care about farm animal sex videos

 

Wanna bet?  ????

 

OP: Get yourself an external USB HD, 4 Gb, and back up all the data on your system.  You should do this anyway, regardless of this upgrade adventure. 

But I don't know what you mean by upgrade.

 

Personally I would never be really comfortable running a system I know someone else had full access to unless I scrubbed the disks and reloaded my own stuff myself; you have no idea what could have been added to your files.  You may trust your tech guy, but then there could be a nephew who is known for his sense of humor....

A few years back I one day found some unusual activity on my computer and discovered that some sort of sleeper malware was activated (I think I was running XP, shows how long ago it was).  It was hidden somewhere on the  C drive with the name "GoogleUpdate".  I got things cleaned up, then went and looked at my backups -- turned out that crud had been there for MONTHS, and none of the AV/malware scans detected it.  However when it kicked in (started to download zip files and installing something, it looked like a dating site for especially ugly people) both my AV (Avast, I think) and Windows Defender detected something and the two programs froze each other.

 

 

 

4 gigabytes or terabytes mr pendejo ?

 

the malware you were running is called microsoft windows

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