Have you ever bought a used computer and found anything interesting left on the hard drive?
I had a coworker buy a used laptop from EBay and when she got it the previous owner had left everything on it, including some personal finance information and a crapload of porn.
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hossdawg97
asked 4 months ago
I got a laptop that had a lot of pdf's about how to learn to be a Dr. at home. I hope I never get that doctor!
The last two curbside computers did.
Personal information? Financial information? Pics? Illegal downloads?
Yep on all accounts. They were both complete, and it was because of viruses/malware that made them "unusable".
In both cases, I did a full scrub of the drive before I reinstalled the OS and resold them. It was the responsible thing to do.
I picked up a computer for free at the transfer station (Stuff going to the dump) years ago and it worked great... Surprisingly it had a music collection, contact info, personal finances & banking info and more still in place...
I thought "how stupid" and wiped it all out... Cleaned and serviced the system, loaded free anti-virus and anti-malware software on it, added Key board, mouse and monitor.. And had a complete working machine to give to a friend for his Grand-kids...
I used to buy Open box HDDs and flash drives and would find all sorts of files and stuff on them... It seems people would buy a HDD to save files off their computer while doing maintenance and when done return the HDD for a refund... The same with flash drives...
How Cheap and stupid can people be...
@hobbitss: Funny how smart people can be in coming up with devious ways to get free hdd "rentals" but then too stupid to wipe them clean before returning them. Go figure...
Yes...and the guy was in the Military. :-/ Had all of his personal info, including banking username and password saved. We've kept ALL of our old hard drives in a box. Just in case
Also know of a guy who bought a computer from a family member...family member later got angry over something and turned the guy in for having "illegal under-age porn" on the same computer. Turns out there really was illegal stuff buried in the PC that the guy had never found... He is now a registered "sex offender".
It's for that exact reason I have yanked the hard drive from every computer I've disposed of. I worked with a company that did forensic accounting and data retrieval from company hard drives. WOW! Unbelievable some of the things people did on their work computers alone.
A friend of mine was moving and after cleaning he threw out an old pc that I knew he couldn't get to work for the longest time, I drove by his house and found it on the curb. I snatched it up and pulled all the components, including 3 HDD. I put them in my computer and found 2 were full of stuff, the main HDD was fried(that's why it wouldn't work). I wiped them and I have them in storage still, tossed the rest of the machine. One day maybe he'll thank me.
Of the 6 people who have answered this question, 3 have found computers with personal info on them and done the right thing and wiped it. Really makes me wonder how often people find computers with personal info on them and keep the info to be used for dastardly gain.
No, I do not look it is none of my business. I work on PCs on the side and try to respect my customers privacy as much as possible. This carries over when I get a free PC.
Bought a used Mac once at a garage sale with important tax documents on it. Deleted everything best as I could and then the next day the computer broke.
Bought a computer at an auction for a local radio station closure and discovered 600gb of music on the hard-drive...jackpot!
@jimeezlady: "Turns out there really was illegal stuff buried in the PC that the guy had never found... He is now a registered "sex offender"."
I'm having a hard time buying into that one. The file dates should have corroborated the second owner's version of events but maybe he just made that claim in an effort to save face.
This is why, when I sell a computer, uninstall all registered software, delete all personal files (after backup), run a defrag, then run an eraser program that zeros out all unused space on the drive.
@chipgreen: This is a real problem. An article on Yahoo News a couple years back. Same thing. Kiddie porn on the computer, owner denied its existence. More forensic research found a virus that allowed a third party to use his computer as remote storage!!!! It took a long time to clear his name, but the moral is to be sure you run anti-virus and such, and check for hidden folders.
Oh, and don't forget hard drives in copiers!
Whenever I have a dead drive, I still put a magnet on it for a while, or, bash the hell out of the board. Anything to slow down a potential data thief.
I've sold laptops and desktops I no longer needed, but always sans-hard drive. I usually dispose of the drives by opening the case and destroying the platters, just to make sure. I certainly wouldn't mind mixing up some thermite and disposing of a few drives that way.
I didn't get a computer that had stuff from the previous owner, but I did get a used mp3 player with some midget... uh... yeah.
@chipgreen: In a bigger town, in another State, and with more money...you could be right. But where we are it really DID happen. As much as I love where I live, sometimes it does frighten me to see just HOW far behind the times they can be.
A little OT, but as an example...our Daughter's Lawyer (one of the highest paid, most respected in town!) had to have his Secretary show him how to find a certain website containing local (public) legal records on his computer... He had NO idea how to do it himself.
@realbogus: An old degausser(from OLD TV days) works wonders on dead drives.
I have bought machines from yard sales and from the one computer store that sell off lease items etc, I have found all kinds of data, most interestingly some womans chat logs and her penis pic collection, etc, but I often get curious and run drive scan programs to see, but never have used the found data, just wiped them with a dod random letter wipe, reformated, them and used them in my systems
I do IT. You'll never know ...
Once I fixed a nun's PC (virus attack) and she'd been DLing extreme gay male porn for years. Another super Xian anti-choice prissy dude also had a hard drive that was full of the stuff. I try not to look, but my job requires that I don't miss any data- so I usually just delete anything non company oriented.
Do you really want to keep forensic folks out of your old hard drive? Drill a couple holes right thru it, thru the platters.
When we get rid of old Windows systems, we usually just repartition and install Linux. The next user gets a working machine that'd be very very hard to get any old data out of it. If at all possible.
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