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Ever found anything odd on a used computer?

Only thing I did was get a Gateway (a.k.a. cowputer) that had a good copy of AUTOCAD on it...
Did a full backup...


and now I dont remember the password I (felt I needed to) use(d) on it. Unhappy camper!
 
MikeS said:
Anybody reading this thread is going to make darn sure that he totally destroys any hard disks or diskettes, no matter how rare they or any software or drivers may be...
Click to expand...

Anyone reading this thread should also know that it's no longer necessary
to physically destroy a hard drive* in order to destroy the data on it.

Just wipe the drive by using Darik's Boot And Nuke (or DBAN for short).
It's a free download and a good thing to have.
There's even a military-grade wipe if you feel you need it. Just be prepared for it to run for a long time.

* I confess that I have personally used a ball-peen hammer on many defenseless hard drives.
It wasn't pretty, but I was under orders.
 
Few people in this world have ever even heard of this website let alone hit a thread using google. I wouldn't worry about them destroying HDs in old machines. Besides 10 year old data is probably a bit obsolete (people change banks, credit card information, apartments, phones, etc).
 
Once I was fixing a computer for a friend and the BIOS lost the HDD settings. I had no computer that could auto-ID the IDE drive and back then it was hard to find the settings of a hard disk. I took it to a friend's with a BIOS that could. Thing is once the guy (programmer) got it working he wanted to check it for files. He found a name of a guy he knew in a program on it and phoned the guy up to tell him despite my objections. It turned out the computer was stolen but not by my buddy. Luckily everything was cool with the original owner since he had moved on with his life. I did not tell my buddy.

I mean what are the odds of this happening?
 
ahm said:
* I confess that I have personally used a ball-peen hammer on many defenseless hard drives.
It wasn't pretty, but I was under orders.
Click to expand...

This current obsession with wiping data is what makes it hard for me to get old computers with intact hard drives, operating systems and software these days. I used to get lots of trashed computers that I could re-use. Now, they're all missing hard drives or have hard drives that are completely smashed. I wish people knew that there are ways to wipe personal data without using a hammer.

With people generous enough to give me a free computer with hard drive and software, I never snoop for their personal data. I know of plenty of methods to find stuff (and "modern" operating systems store personal data in many many places), but I am grateful enough for their generosity not to turn on them and snoop.
 
Mr.Amiga500 said:
This current obsession with wiping data is what makes it hard for me to get old computers with intact hard drives, operating systems and software these days. I used to get lots of trashed computers that I could re-use. Now, they're all missing hard drives or have hard drives that are completely smashed. I wish people knew that there are ways to wipe personal data without using a hammer.
Click to expand...

On the other hand, put yourself in their shoes. The machine's junk to them and they don't want to risk any chance of leaving data behind. That's why there's a market for these things.
 
Except for a copy of sextris and some personal photo's and notes I've found surprisingly little. Too bad that when dumpsterdiving the harddrive is one of THE first items to be taken out.


Edit: just to add, everything I get my hands on also gets wiped! I'm actually glad to see that most, if not all, people here do the same!
 
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If you collect laptops like I do you hate people who remove the drive AND keep the sled and bezel, those are hard to find sometimes. HDs you can find but the mounting hardware is not as common.
 
I've purchased a few digital cameras at thrift stores that have photos of previous owners on them... And I've come up with personal files on old computers.

Those get wiped quickly.

The best thing I ever found was a stack of banking records inside an old file cabinet I bought at a thrift store. I pulled the drawers out to make it easier to unload and saw a bunch of papers that were lost inside. They had: bank name, account holder names, account numbers, addresses, social security numbers, and more on them. I called the bank and they quickly picked up the matching file cabinet from the thrift store. I brought the records in that were in the cabinet I bought and they gave me a crisp $50 bill for returning them.

I work for a large corporation as a paranoid security engineer. I know what could've been done with those records I found. I notified the bank and returned them in the hopes that they would modify their physical asset disposal procedures to include pulling drawers out of desks and filing cabinets to ensure no records were ever accidentally released again.

If you bought a filing cabinet at a thrift store, pull the bottom drawer out and see if anything is lost inside it!
 
I know I've mentioned this on here before, but a company I used to work for used to fix / buy & sell cash machines (autotellers?). Usually they'd come in with the odd £10 or £20 stuck in the works somewhere, but one came in complete with £50,000 worth of Greek Drachmas. The boss finally got hold of someone who spoke english at the bank it came from, and it was all sorted out, but they had no idea where it had gone.
 
I have found a SE/30 with research data from Duke University and a Quadra 840 from SAS with technical documentation a few years ago. Lately it was a Beige G3 from a thrift store with some files from an advertising agency with a Zip disk loaded with porn. Of course all of the drives were wiped and reloaded.

I have also picked up a few more recent PCs from the thrift store with intact hard drives. If they had personal data on it I don't know since they were immediately wiped once I made sure that they were usable.
 
Unknown_K said:
If you collect laptops like I do you hate people who remove the drive AND keep the sled and bezel, those are hard to find sometimes. HDs you can find but the mounting hardware is not as common.
Click to expand...

Yes... especially when they do that and THEN SELL THEM ON EBAY! :/

Chuck(G) said:
On the other hand, put yourself in their shoes. The machine's junk to them and they don't want to risk any chance of leaving data behind. That's why there's a market for these things.
Click to expand...

That video brought a tear to my eye. Poor hard drives..

Edit:
Oh yeah, and after reading the post above me I remembered I had research data from University of Pennsylvania on my ValuePoint when I got it.
 
I guess I've seen stuff before, nothing really stands out in my mind other than some adult content that was absolutely not anything I ever had wanted to see. I and I think most folks in our situation are pretty good and honest people though. A lot of computer I buy if the seller asks or want I'll recover the data for them or assure them to safely dispose of anything found. I understand the concern and it's always best to wipe the drive a few times before selling a system and then comes the debate of "well, it could still be read with an electron microscope" but that is not much concern and the chance of your data ending up being interesting enough to recover is pretty ridiculous.

Fortunately most of the stuff I've seen on systems isn't from people but companies who toss equipment. Nothing too interesting other than an application or two that the company used. One was an insurance company and I don't think there was customer data on the system (it was synced to an external server fortunately) but it was fun to play with auto-insurance quotes. I told that story before but we quoted our friend some $5000/month insurance by adding quite a few dui's, hit and runs, and a vehicular homicide to the record. Who would have thought that would even come up with a valid quote.
 
I've never found anything grose when browsing hard drives from old computers I have obtained.

On my 486, there were some standard documents relating to a local school (which previously owned the machine). nothing special. I just deleted the files, since I did not have the knowledge or ability to reset the HDD. The only interesting file I found was a standard 640x400 16-color BMP with a picture of Roger Rabbit & co. in his car, visually dated 1988 (file is from 1993). I curently use it as a background-image on most of my computers.

My first XT did not have a HDD.

My second XT had some personal documents. I contacted the original owner('s son*) as soon I identified the files, and asked him what to do. We got it sorted out, by me sending him a zip of all the files on the drive, and then I will delete the original files the next time that hard drive gets connected to a computer (it's curently in my shelf, and not in use. However, I have deleted the files from all the backups I have of it).

(*The person I bought the XT from, inherited it from his dad.)
 
Sometimes it does make a funny story, yes, especially if you can piece together how it happened.

I told that story before but we quoted our friend some $5000/month insurance by adding quite a few dui's, hit and runs, and a vehicular homicide to the record. Who would have thought that would even come up with a valid quote.
Click to expand...


That got me laughing out louding:thumbsup:
 
Sometimes it does make a funny story, yes, especially if you can piece together how it happened
Click to expand...

Elementary.. disgruntled ex sent him porn referring to him as a horses arse...

Kishy you must very well let this alone now and it will do you well if you tried adamantly to erase this whole episode from your very own memory. We have tried to warn you suggestively and presumed you would pick it up, but it is now obvious for us to be more verbal.
Yours truly,
WWF
 
ahm said:
........Just wipe the drive by using Darik's Boot And Nuke (or DBAN for short).
It's a free download and a good thing to have.
There's even a military-grade wipe if you feel you need it. Just be prepared for it to run for a long time.

* I confess that I have personally used a ball-peen hammer on many defenseless hard drives.
It wasn't pretty, but I was under orders.
Click to expand...

Do I understand this correctly that using the good old "Format c:" is not effective for removing
all that is in there?

ziloo
 
ziloo said:
Do I understand this correctly that using the good old "Format c:" is not effective for removing
all that is in there?

ziloo
Click to expand...

No, formatting does not erase the data on the drive, there are still bits of data all over the place, in most cases format merely deletes the pointers to the files, but not the files themselves (incidentally delete does the same thing). That is why you can in some cases un-format a drive. The idea is that you don't need to actually erase the data once the pointer to it has been removed, the system will simply write over it when the time comes.

As you can imagine from a security stand point this is not a good thing, it means that someone with the right tools can actually recover the data that was on the drive, even after it has been formatted a few times. Something like DBAN not only erases the pointers, it also systematically goes through and writes data to every sector on the drive and thereby reduces the chance of data recovery. The military grade softwares that do this will usually write data to every sector a few times to make extra sure that there is no chance of recovery.

There are some apps you can download that will do this to the free space on your drive, thereby making sure your deleted files remain deleted.
 
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