Insurance claim, Should I remove hard drives from laptop?

Dave_C_2

How do you know that the hard drive isn't broken by the fall?

Just my opinion:

Is your so-called "personal information" that personal that you worry about others seeing it. Are you being paranoid?

With the possible exception of passwords for bank accounts etc. There's really nothing worth worrying about in the grand scheme of things. Yet another good reason why you should never store sensitive passwords on your machine.

Dave

Linbox

JasX wrote: »

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

This is by far the most appropriate answer. Connect it to another computer use CCleaner to wipe the Entire Drive using dod 5220.22-m . Then put it back into the broken laptop.

You never know the laptop may be recycled and stripped for parts .
How would you customers feel about their personal data being available to the next user.

shaun_from_Africa

Is your so-called "personal information" that personal that you worry about others seeing it. Are you being paranoid?

No, the OP isn't being paranoid. They are simply wanting to make sure that they follow the legal obligations that come with running a business which involves having the personal details of other people in their possession.

How do you know that the hard drive isn't broken by the fall?

It takes a hell of a lot to damage a HDD to such an extent that any info on it is unrecoverable.

mikeopvc

JasX wrote: »

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.


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

I think this is my best option, thanks.

My friend is going to try and remove all data from the hard drive and then I can send the whole laptop safe in the knowledge that my customers details are not at risk, It's not a case of being paranoid, just want to do the right thing.

My PS3 account details were recently compromised due to the sony PSN saga and although nothing has happened as yet, it's still not a nice feeling knowing that some dodgy people have your information.

thanks:)

vaio

The other thing that might be worth thinking about (although you might be too far down the road already) is that given the cost of laptops these days when you add up the insurance excess plus future premium loadings and maybe loss of NCB it could be worth not claiming and you’d be better off just going & buying a replacement

paulofessex

If you were to send the laptop with the hard drive in place, if the assessors found the unit to be beyond repair are you sure they would send the unit direct back to you, or would the insurance instruct the assessor otherwise. So jasX's advices sounds the best to me.

Dave_C_2

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

No, the OP isn't being paranoid. They are simply wanting to make sure that they follow the legal obligations that come with running a business which involves having the personal details of other people in their possession.

My mistake, apologies all round.

<Dave makes mental note to re-read OP before commenting on long thread :embarasse >

xstitchcrazee

My laptop died after my husbands grandaughter spilled cola on it. When I was speaking to the insurance company they actually advised me because I couldn't take a back up of any recent work from my last back up, to take out my own hardrive and replace it with another. As long as the laptop arrived with all it should have they were happy.