Do hdd mechanics look through file when fixing hard drives?

[Gopherhamster]

I'm going to be straight forward with you guys, my hdd broke yesterday (not software or viruses) and it has a lot of pornography in it (yes, I know it's normal for other people but still.), and I was worried; do the people who fix your hard drive look though your files? Please tell me if so, thank you.

 

[DSzymborski]

If you're talking about a data recovery service, they're necessarily going to at least see the *names* of the files. They're trying to recover the files after all. As for opening the files, while they're technically not supposed to be opening files that have nothing to do with the repair...well...things happen.

If the hard drive is actually physically broken, you have better odds of them not seeing your porn stash. When you RMA a hard drive, it's usually just recycled and you get another one - the cost/benefit to the company of trying to repair a broken hard drive isn't worth the bother most of the time.

 

[qazzi]

some do and some don't.

 

[DougLYX]

well..let me put it to u this way, plenty of secrets got out via repair techs on ppl's hds. so if it's a drive u don't want ppl to know about the data..then yes.. cause some techs to a random check of file data quality if they're in the mood. if it's sexually illegal(like child porn), expect law enforcement showing up at your house. if you want to be really secure in your data...keep offline backups and get software repair utilities to fix your own hdds.

 

[DougLYX]

i have an old hd i kept tons of viruses and malware on it for research reasons, it died eventually...i just labled it porn and put in my salvage bin..so if anybody visiting decides to steal it and attempt to recover the data, they get their pc screwed.

 

[Gopherhamster]

thanks guy's, I'm just gonna get a new one instead.

 

[fzabkar]

The data recovery professionals attracts only the best, most trustworthy, most ethical paragons of society. If you believe that, then you haven't lived long enough.