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A sketchy laptop repair put me in a tough spot | Electronics Repairers - The Community Guide

A sketchy laptop repair put me in a tough spot

A customer brought in an old laptop that wouldn't boot, and the fix was simple, a dead hard drive. I put in a new SSD, installed a fresh OS, and was about to wipe the old drive as per my usual routine. But I always do a quick check of the old drive first, just in case there are personal photos or documents the customer forgot about. This time, I found a hidden folder with some files that looked very much like pirated software keys, and worse, a few things that seemed like they could be stolen personal data from other people. The guy was just some regular dad, not a tech person at all. My gut said he probably bought the laptop used and had no idea, but I still had to figure out what to do with what I found. I ended up wiping the drive completely and told him the old drive was totally dead and unrecoverable, which was mostly true. It felt like the right call to not stir up trouble for maybe no reason, but it also felt like I was covering something up, and that still bugs me.

3 comments

3 Comments

flores.drew7mo ago

Seriously, you played judge and jury with someone else's property. Those pirated keys might be small potatoes, but stolen personal data? That's not a 'maybe no reason' situation. Imagine if one of those files was a social security number from a data breach. You had a chance to do the right thing and punted. Now you get to wonder if you helped bury a crime instead of just a hard drive.

jessem687mo ago

Man, my buddy bought a used PC once and found something real bad on it.

wesley7616mo ago

Wait, "stolen personal data from a data breach"? That's way beyond finding some weird photos, that's legit scary. Your friend just had a whole identity theft kit sitting there and didn't report it? I'd be freaking out, not just wiping the drive. That feels like finding a bag of cash from a bank robbery and just tossing it in a dumpster.