Laptop "repair"?!

[MorrisWoodman12]

I recently took my laptop in for repair, all my work was stored there, the problem was with the cooler, but they changed the disk and all the files were erased.

Did they give you the drive back? If so you may be able to recover them from it.
Years ago I had a drive fail. I took it into what I thought was a reputable local computer shop to recover my files. Two weeks later they said the drive was totally trashed. I had already installed Windows 95 (shows how long ago it was) on a new drive. I downloaded a drive checking and recovery app and recovered 90% of my files. They obviously hadn't even tried but then I don't remember paying anything.
Have fun
Martin

 

[throbscottle]

Far too much work!

I believe all modern drives are made of glass or aluminium platters so pop the things on the ground in the parking lot and a few good whacks with a hammer, job done, and you're de-stressed for the day.

More fun maybe, but the hard drive fixers are located within a secure room in a larger workshop. They have their own press drill...

 

[nickds1]

More fun maybe, but the hard drive fixers are located within a secure room in a larger workshop. They have their own press drill...

No disrespect, but I've spend my career in security and technology for banks and hedge funds. In those environments, data on a drive can be worth millions to the right/wrong person. Not only that, but as a CTO I was responsible for the security of that data and were it to fall into the wrong hands, at the least I'd lose my job and also possibly be criminally liable if the data was market sensitive.

It all depends on the value of the data. If the value is high enough, drilling holes in disks or hitting them with a hammer might make you feel good but will not protect the data.

I have spent time in state run forensic labs, and data can be recovered from bits of hard drive platters that had been supposedly zeroed/patterned multiple times, then chopped up and from crushed flash chips etc. even from SDRAM from a switched off computer. Fragments of platters can be scanned and damaged chips de-encapsulated and read.

The technology that can be employed to recover data is impressive.

Everything depends on the value of the data and how deep your pockets are.

 

[throbscottle]

That's really quite amazing - but I doubt if retail sales figures are worth that much! And now I've had a think about it, i think the drives are sent to a company that destroys them. But when I first started it was just a few big holes drilled.

 

[jcassidy]

My answer was somewhat tongue in cheek, but also, not really.

The expense required to attempt to recover a destroyed hard drive platter (attempt because you're gotta pay for it whether you get any useable data or not) puts it out of all but the deepest pockets. Yet companies push the idea that the only way to securely destroy data is to pay them large amounts of money to do it for you.

For the vast, vast majority of people (who aren't the CEO of Apple, the governor of the Bank of England, or GCHQ), smashing the absolute pineappes out of a drive is completely satisfactory. Your data is not that interesting or valuable.

In my CISSP career, I've contracted for secure destruction when required, but also saved clients loads of money by buying a hammer.

 

[John Brown]

I was talking to a person who disposed of corporate IT equipment a couple of decades back, and he reckoned they drilled holes in the disc drives and poured in Coke. Whether he was pulling my legs, or whether their customers had heard all the stories of teeth or 6" nails dissolving in Coke, I have no idea.