Insurance claim, Should I remove hard drives from laptop?

mikeopvc

My laptop broke when dropped down the stairs, I rang insurance and they have instructed a company to assess it for possible repairs.

A friend suggested I remove the hard drives first under the data protection act.
The laptop is used for running my business and has everything on it including customer details etc.
My question is should I remove the hard drives? Is it ok to do this?

thanks

Mike

HO87

mikeopvc wrote: »

My laptop broke when dropped down the stairs, I rang insurance and they have instructed a company to assess it for possible repairs.

A friend suggested I remove the hard drives first under the data protection act.
The laptop is used for running my business and has everything on it including customer details etc.
My question is should I remove the hard drives? Is it ok to do this?

thanks

Mike

Always a good idea to protect your data - especially if you are registered (with the ICO) and need to demonstrate a level of care for customer records. There is no specific provision in the DPA that requires you to remove hard drives by the way but it would still be a sensible move IMO.

Your insurance company may well feel, however, that if and when they pay you out for a replacement machine that as they then own it lock, stock and barrel that they may not be impressed with your removing the hard drive. I'd check with them first.

mikeopvc

HO87 wrote: »

Your insurance company may well feel, however, that if and when they pay you out for a replacement machine that as they then own it lock, stock and barrel that they may not be impressed with your removing the hard drive. I'd check with them first.

Thought so!
Although they will own the hard drive they wont own the info on it right?
Trouble is I can't delete everything as my laptop is broke:o

2010

It`s hard to see how they can assess your PC with the hard drive removed.
The other thing is, did you back up all your data on the PC?
When they assess the damage it could all be lost anyway.

mikeopvc

2010 wrote: »

It`s hard to see how they can assess your PC with the hard drive removed.
The other thing is, did you back up all your data on the PC?
When they assess the damage it could all be lost anyway.

I do have everything backed up on my external hard drive so that's not a problem.

Will they need the hard drives to asses the laptop? I think it's properly dead, it doesn't even turn on and the screen is all smashed.

diable

Take the hard drive out put the plastic cover back on and keep quiet about it, if they find out you can then tell them why you took the hard drive out.

shaun_from_Africa

The best way to get a definitive answer would be to ask the insurance company themselves.
I'm sure that this will be something that they've come across many times, and once you explain that there is personal customer data on the HDD, they should (hopefully) be able to advise you.

If the computer is as badly damaged as you say, they may not even want to turn it on.

2010

I can understand your concern but basically the only ones who can answer your question are the "assessors".

I would imagine they are a reputable company and would treat your data properly.
If you can`t switch it on, they won`t be able to either.

You know that insurance companies hate paying out but would rather waste money getting confirmation from an "expert" before coughing up for a new one.

Good luck.

JasX

2010 wrote: »

I would imagine they are a reputable company and would treat your data properly.

I would imagine acting on a sweeping assumption like that is a lawsuit and/or big fine from the data commissioner waiting to happen. ACS Law got fined for losing customer data when someone hacked into their server and found personal data in an insecure/non-encrypted file, having it insecure on a hard drive and sending it off to an unknown 3rd party 'asuming' things would be ok......... he'd have a field day.

2010 wrote: »

If you can`t switch it on, they won`t be able to either.

errrr...... and you should steer clear of giving technical opinions


Best option -find a desktop PC and hook the hard drive up to it (straightforwward if drive is SATA, £3 adaptor is needed if its IDE). That'll let you see if the drive is working and access all data on it.

At minimum delete all sensitive data (and empty recycle bin), even thats a little sloppy and using a utility to overwrite free space and securley delete the customer data would be more reliable.

then pop the drive back into the laptop and send it off

vaio

I’d say a dead laptop with a smashed screen is pretty much guaranteed to be a write off and will be replaced rather than repaired so the fact that it has no hard drive doesn’t matter.

davb

If they insist on having the hard drive, you could always buy a cheap used hard drive off Ebay and swap it. Just make sure it's 2.5 inch and the correct type - SATA or PATA (IDE)
Otherwise connect it to another PC in a caddy, and run a secure erasing program .