Lesson Learned - Laptop

[EdwardC]

Originally Posted by Wolf359
Originally Posted by StevieC
Originally Posted by csandste
About once a year the local news channels have a picture of some kiddy porner being perp walked because he idiocally took his computer in for repair. Never thought if they caught the perv because they look at everyone's drive. Or is there something here I'm missing?

That's not what I meant by sensitive content and I don't appreciate you implying I'm a perv. For your information I was a victim of abuse as a kid and it took me a long time to get over it.

I didn't actually get that from the post, just that in theory your laptop could have been compromised because in cases mentioned before, they looked at the drive when it was brought in for repair.

When I worked in IT, one of the guys would repair company laptops and while he didn't actually go fishing through them normally, I believe in one case he found a laptop was full of porn. I think the complaint there was that it was out of space.

I used to blow away dead accounts too, sometimes I'd go through them to make sure there wasn't anything important left behind, other times I'd just blow them away, just depended on the position and how old it was.



Not that I have anything to do with the matter, but I also didn't read that the was implying anything at all. I feel that he was more curious if there was any kind of law that if something is brought in for repair, it's automatically scanned for illegal content, or if they happened to see anything illegal, the repair company was required to report it to the authorities.

Either way, glad you got it back working! How long is the warranty period for that machine? Another option would be to throw an SSD in the open bay and run the machine off that.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted by StevieC
Not how I read it. I will wait to see if he answers.

I can't answer for someone else's post, either, but I'd lean towards Wolf359's hypothesis on the motive, and I can certainly understand people being sensitive on the matter. Nonetheless, Wolf's point about how to provide tech support is well taken. I don't do professional tech support. Fixing Windows issues all day, well, I would have been dead three releases ago. I do fix things up for friends and family on occasion, though. I don't snoop unless absolutely necessary, like the hard drive being full. Generally speaking, I've only had to get rid of a bunch of malware and things are back in order. The only one I've ever said "porn" to was an older lady who had installed a piece of chat malware, which was basically a newer version of the porn dialer. She couldn't get online. She had downloaded, in addition to multiple toolbars (they were there when she bought it, of course), what she thought was a useful chat program. Instead, it modified her internet connection and would try to dial out to a modem at a 1-900 line. Considering she never had it hooked up to a phone line and simply used broadband, the dialing failed, but so did her internet. I told her she had a porn dialer, and I've never seen someone turn so red. I explained to her that it was really just a chat program based on the same principle, and then she saw the humour in it.

In general terms when it comes to data sensitivity, this type of inference is something that has to be nipped in the bud. People who encrypt their data, people who don't want spyware on their computer, and people who don't want their data intercepted are not all tax cheats, pornographers, adulterers, scam artists, hackers, terrorists, or drug dealers. If anyone can see the wisdom in why their utility bills and credit card statements aren't mailed to them printed on postcards, then there shouldn't be any confusion as to why someone would want their computer data protected from thieves, in place, in use, or in transit. I keep all kinds of business and personal financial information on my computer. Wanting to keep that safe from Facebook or Google or Apple or hackers or break and enter aficionados should not raise any eyebrows. When it does, I really question that person's technical skills - or, more accurately, lack thereof.

 

[simple_gifts]

Stevie;
Many BITOG'rs are buying used corporate laptops from a reseller; they are super easily serviced and have no try and buy nagware.

I have no reason to bring my machines to a repair facility, but use LVM encryption (linux) so if the HD fails or my LT gets stolen, there are no worries

I point out to friends and family a windows password prevents someone from using your machine, it doesn't protect the data from access if the drive is removed/stolen etc, but you knew that....

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted by EdwardC
I feel that he was more curious if there was any kind of law that if something is brought in for repair, it's automatically scanned for illegal content, or if they happened to see anything illegal, the repair company was required to report it to the authorities.

And StevieC is, in my view, a good guy to ask tech type questions, because he's well versed in it.

 

[uc50ic4more]

Originally Posted by KrisZ
Why do some laptop manufacturers render a laptop useless when the battery fails? Pretty much all laptops in the past would continue working g fine as long as they were plugged in. And to make matters worse the new ones have built in batteries, not easily removable. Another method to convince people do buy new I guess.


I had a MacBook Pro years ago that would throttle itself quite a bit if it were forced to run solely from the power supply with no battery operating along with it. Apparently the (stock) power supplies did not deliver enough current to power it alone.

I have a ThinkPad W-series that does the same thing: If it is coupled with its 135W power supply or greater it runs at full capacity but throttles itself down it the smaller 90W supply is used.

I would expect it's a simple matter of cost: Manufacturers want:

1) To use cheap power supplies instead of powerful ones.
2) To skip designing and manufacturing interchangeable, modular components in favour of the monolithic.
3) To have their customers buy a new device as often as possible.

 

[uc50ic4more]

Originally Posted by simple_gifts
I point out to friends and family a windows password prevents someone from using your machine, it doesn't protect the data from access if the drive is removed/stolen etc, but you knew that....


Don't some of the more expensive versions of Windows ("Pro" or "Enterprise" or something?) come with "BitLocker" which encrypts user space and/ or the entire systme drive?

 

[StevieC]

Originally Posted by Garak
Originally Posted by EdwardC
I feel that he was more curious if there was any kind of law that if something is brought in for repair, it's automatically scanned for illegal content, or if they happened to see anything illegal, the repair company was required to report it to the authorities.

And StevieC is, in my view, a good guy to ask tech type questions, because he's well versed in it.

I said above I'm waiting for him to answer. I'm fully willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and apologize for reading it wrong if that is the case but that isn't how I read it is all.

 

[StevieC]

I think I might put an SSD in the empty bay where there is a SATA cable and move all my data to that and install all my applications on that drive so if this dies again within the remaining warranty period I can just pull that drive and all is fine.

That said I just checked the event log and they didn't even boot it into Windows when they had it. So it appears that most likely booted off USB into diagnostics software after they replaced the battery.


As for who asked how much warranty comes with this unit? - Standard 1 year manufacturer parts / labour warranty. Just the cost to ship it in for repair is up to the owner, they ship it back for free (Mine came via FedEx), although the service depot isn't that far from me so I can take it directly there. (Mississauga for the local folks)

 

[Subdued]

I used to do depot repair for several retail manufacturers and I can confirm:

Hard failure, we never went through the drives, because we didn't need to in order to facilitate the repair.

Spyware or space issues, we did have to go through the customer's drive in order to facilitate the repair. Almost every single PC that was infected with spyware was also completely filled with porn.

This was 15 years ago, though, and a lot has changed with spyware, though. The two arent as intertwined nearly as much as they used to be.

 

[Nick1994]

It's probably got an M.2 SSD in it, you can also pop in a regular SSD in that slot.

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted by StevieC
Originally Posted by Garak
Originally Posted by EdwardC
I feel that he was more curious if there was any kind of law that if something is brought in for repair, it's automatically scanned for illegal content, or if they happened to see anything illegal, the repair company was required to report it to the authorities.

And StevieC is, in my view, a good guy to ask tech type questions, because he's well versed in it.

I said above I'm waiting for him to answer. I'm fully willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and apologize for reading it wrong if that is the case but that isn't how I read it is all.

When he threw in "Or is there something here I'm missing? " I kind of took it the same way you did StevieC.

 

[StevieC]

That's what did it for me... It seemed to me like he was implying something. But I will give him the benefit of the doubt to answer here... Text can sometimes lead someone to think the wrong way as I could be in this case.

 

[StevieC]

Originally Posted by Nick1994
It's probably got an M.2 SSD in it, you can also pop in a regular SSD in that slot.


It does, and it's not easy to get at unless you take the system apart. The SATA bay however is easy to pop the cover on the bottom side and install/remove. So I'm going to put in a Samsung EVO Pro and move all my data / applications to that drive underneath.

I wish Bitlocker was a standalone program that could be installed or purchased because I don't have Windows Pro on this laptop and I'm not about to pay $100 to upgrade it to Pro via Microsoft for this feature.

 

[Wolf359]

Originally Posted by StevieC
Originally Posted by Nick1994
It's probably got an M.2 SSD in it, you can also pop in a regular SSD in that slot.


It does, and it's not easy to get at unless you take the system apart. The SATA bay however is easy to pop the cover on the bottom side and install/remove. So I'm going to put in a Samsung EVO Pro and move all my data / applications to that drive underneath.

I wish Bitlocker was a standalone program that could be installed or purchased because I don't have Windows Pro on this laptop and I'm not about to pay $100 to upgrade it to Pro via Microsoft for this feature.


What about those $3 Windows 10 Pro license keys on eBay?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Windows-10...Licence-Key-Genuine-Product/123473750865

 

[itguy08]

Not sure if it still works but Windows 7 pro licenses used to work for Windows 10 Pro as well - it would "upgrade you".

 

[StevieC]

I ended up finding a site and bought a key for $39 that is legit. I upgraded it to Pro last night and encrypted the drive. Then set the windows policy to ask for a PIN number for Bitlocker at boot-time.

What was nice is that it just added the pro features to my existing installation so I didn't need to reinstall / format etc.

I think I will just get Pro here on out using a key if I get a Home Edition laptop in future.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted by itguy08
Not sure if it still works but Windows 7 pro licenses used to work for Windows 10 Pro as well - it would "upgrade you".


Yes, it works for most versions of Windows 7 still. Definitely for Home and Pro, as I've done it recently.

 

[csandste]

Originally Posted by StevieC
Not how I read it. I will wait to see if he answers.


It has nothing to do with you. I meant when you drop off a computer to get it fixed, what's to keep the tech from looking at all of your data? They seem to find kiddy porners. That must mean that they look at data on all sorts of drives. Including tax forms, etc. Either that or they they're tipped off by the cops to look at particular drives.

 

[csandste]

Before I PO someone else off. Let me also emphasize that I'm not stating that most computer techs steal information from drives during repairs.

 

[StevieC]

Originally Posted by csandste
Originally Posted by StevieC
Not how I read it. I will wait to see if he answers.


It has nothing to do with you. I meant when you drop off a computer to get it fixed, what's to keep the tech from looking at all of your data? They seem to find kiddy porners. That must mean that they look at data on all sorts of drives. Including tax forms, etc. Either that or they they're tipped off by the cops to look at particular drives.

My apologies then for taking it wrong.