computer repair

[north_east_lad]

hi all advice pls, laptop is going back to lenovo pc shops cant fix it long story, question is im running on win 10, and have a pin for access, will they find my stuff, all adults from xham, btw im using lappy now its just the screen wont work, been replaced so no need to get file access, do i need to delete everything

tia

[Horseman]

hi all advice pls, laptop is going back to lenovo pc shops cant fix it long story, question is im running on win 10, and have a pin for access, will they find my stuff, all adults from xham, btw im using lappy now its just the screen wont work, been replaced so no need to get file access, do i need to delete everything

tia

There's a chance they'll find it. As long as its nothing illegal I wouldn't worry. They've probably seen it all before!

[scutty brown]

If it's going back to Lenovo you'll probably get a  refurbished unit as exchange. I doubt you'll get yours back. The hard drive could end  up reused anywhere, though hopefully wiped.
Thing to remember is some techs make a habit of looking through drives for porn staches, especially of wives, girlfriends, daughters....to add to their own collections. But if they find anything dodgy they WILL report it

[Markus]

If you’re worried, try some corner shop where they fix laptops. It wouldn't be a repair under warranty but it would be a solution possibly to keeping it away from prying eyes. As others have said Lenovo probably are used to it and wouldn’t report you if nothing dodgy is found. 

Best lesson to take away from this is to keep your stash on an external hard drive. They are cheap and some come with encryption technology.

[Blackpool Rock]

If you’re worried, try some corner shop where they fix laptops. It wouldn't be a repair under warranty but it would be a solution possibly to keeping it away from prying eyes. As others have said Lenovo probably are used to it and wouldn’t report you if nothing dodgy is found. 

Best lesson to take away from this is to keep your stash on an external hard drive. They are cheap and some come with encryption technology.

How does that work then 

Send it back to Lenovo at some remote wherever place and even if they find your porn they haven't a clue who you are or take it to a local place where they still find your porn stash but look you in the eye as they hand it back while thinking "This guy likes watching women piss in guy's mouths" / whatever particular kink the OP is into 

[lamboman]

If it's going back to Lenovo you'll probably get a  refurbished unit as exchange. I doubt you'll get yours back. The hard drive could end  up reused anywhere, though hopefully wiped.
Thing to remember is some techs make a habit of looking through drives for porn staches, especially of wives, girlfriends, daughters....to add to their own collections. But if they find anything dodgy they WILL report it

You send a laptop for repair and get a different one back?Seems a bit unlikely and not exactly ideal for the customer,I've never had that happen and would be well pissed if it did.
Anyway as long as your history is legal why worry.

[catweazle]

This of course is how Gary Glitter fell foul of the law. Took his pc into PC World for repair, they found the illegal stuff and reported it.

[WDFORTE]

Just remove hard drive, put it in a caddy or connect to a pc and format it, put it back in.  Better to be safe than sorry.

[scutty brown]

You send a laptop for repair and get a different one back?Seems a bit unlikely and not exactly ideal for the customer,I've never had that happen and would be well pissed if it did.
Anyway as long as your history is legal why worry.

I've had it happen lots of times. The one you send back gets tested, stripped, and the working parts go back into the spares bin. In exchange you get one already reassembled from checked and tested parts. It's quicker and easier to get a working machine back to the customer that way. Lenovo, Dell, HP, Microsoft and others - they all do it.

[scutty brown]

Just remove hard drive, put it in a caddy or connect to a pc and format it, put it back in.  Better to be safe than sorry.

A lot of modern laptops have solid state e-sata or nvram drives that won't fit into a caddy.

[Londonpunter30]

Looks like you’ve already taken it to local shop.  How broken is it, do you no longer have access to logon and remove stuff ?

What is your PIN, is it a bitlocker startup pin, or just a sign in pin for your account ?

[Markus]

How does that work then 

Send it back to Lenovo at some remote wherever place and even if they find your porn they haven't a clue who you are or take it to a local place where they still find your porn stash but look you in the eye as they hand it back while thinking "This guy likes watching women piss in guy's mouths" / whatever particular kink the OP is into 

The OP said that the screen wouldn’t work.  I once took mine to some Indian corner shop and he fixed it in front of me i.e no time to go through my files. Especially if you bought the laptop brand new at the time, sending it back to the manufacturer will mean they potentially send a refurb back to you if the model has been discontinued.

[Xtro]

Just remove hard drive, put it in a caddy or connect to a pc and format it, put it back in.  Better to be safe than sorry.

That would invalidate the warranty.

[lamboman]

I've had it happen lots of times. The one you send back gets tested, stripped, and the working parts go back into the spares bin. In exchange you get one already reassembled from checked and tested parts. It's quicker and easier to get a working machine back to the customer that way. Lenovo, Dell, HP, Microsoft and others - they all do it.

Never had that happened myself,perhaps it's a new thing as it's 6 years since I had several laptops simultaneously.
I almost always had one out for repair and never once got a different one back in 15 years of working,I didn't ever ask for an exchange though.

[VolapUK]

Always keep the important/embarrassing/etc stuff in your HDD, OP. I recently had to take my laptop to the repair shop and I had to give them my password; but I kept all my private files, portable browsers etc. in the external drive.

[nbarnes]

The OP said that the screen wouldn’t work.  I once took mine to some Indian corner shop and he fixed it in front of me i.e no time to go through my files. Especially if you bought the laptop brand new at the time, sending it back to the manufacturer will mean they potentially send a refurb back to you if the model has been discontinued.

Can he connect another screen? I assume he can't remote into it?

Defo a lesson to be learned here, even if its just for backup. Never keep anything on a disk that cannot be removed from a computer.
I have a fucking load of legal but kinky as fuck shit on my hard disks - never in a million years would i want to have to look some PC world nerd in the eyes after he fixes my computer.

[Xtro]

This of course is how Gary Glitter fell foul of the law. Took his pc into PC World for repair, they found the illegal stuff and reported it.

I've just bought Gary Glitter's old laptop. It's got some really disturbing things on it.

His music!         

[boardyhell]

years ago a colleague at work came in with loads of photos, his cousin worked in a developing study and took a copy of l the photos which
interested him
most people have porn on their computers ,its personal stuff to be careful with

[north_east_lad]

hi all a great read this thread and thanks for all the replies
stuff i have on is bog std from xham nowt else, i dont think there going to give me a refern as they have took note of the s/n and its on the invoice paperwork and was also told that they "may" have to do a full factory reset (just so i`m aware), i`m going to save my good stuff on a usb and delete the rest, and do a defrag if that matters
its being picked up tomorrow, will keep u all updated