Computer Repair Security

[noviceuser]

Hi,
I need to send my computer off to be repaired. But am a little worry about
the security of my personal information. I don't keep any sensitive information on any files etc.
Would very much appreciate if some savvy individual on here, could suggest some safeguards.

Unfortunatley I can't get a technician to come down and fix at my home, which would be a much
better option. Even more annoying is that the computer is only two months old.

Any advice on this subject would be useful.

Thanks in advance.

William

 

[aford10]

It depends on what the tech is going to be repairing.

The best option, would be to take all your files, and move them to a flash drive, external drive, CD...etc.

 

[nordlead]

If it is a boot problem, the technician may not care if you remove the HDD. I only ever bought one prebuilt PC, but when I sent it in for warranty I removed the HDD since we were 100% sure it wasn't the HDDs fault.

The thing I don't understand, is if you don't keep any sensitive information why are you concerned?

 

[mbarnes86]

Hi

The only way to ensure data security (after the problem has occurred) is to remove the hard disk and keep it at home while the PC goes off for repair
(assuming this is not a hard disk fault !!)


If the repair is under guarantee by the seller or manufacturer they may refuse to repair it if they can not determine if problem is a hardware fault or software corruption.

Before the fault occurred you could use encryption on any files you wanted to protect but it is too late now.

regards

Mike Barnes

 

[aford10]

There are some repair jobs, where you could pull the hard drive. Though, if it's a software issue, obviously that's not an option. And if hardware is being replaced/upgraded, it may require driver installs/removal. It all depends on the type of repair they are doing.

 

[noviceuser]

Thanks for all the replies. Will see if its possible to remove the hard disk.

Cheers
William

 

[cats_Paw]

"The thing I don't understand, is if you don't keep any sensitive information why are you concerned?"

he is lieng and has some sensitive stuff (Captain Obvious SRIKES again). 😀.

On another note, i do not suggest having some safe guard programs.
Most of them are easy to decode with a graphics card, and the only thing they do it make it harder for you to access those files, especially if you forget the password.

The best approach is to use a combined system (for example, rar an archive, get it into some random folder with 20000000000000 almost empty files, make it not visible, stuff like that ).

 

[noviceuser]

"The thing I don't understand, is if you don't keep any sensitive information why are you concerned?"

Well not to my knowledge. But you can't be careful.