Securing Documents when getting repairs

I have to bring my laptop in for a repair. Something with the screen. But I
can assume that the repair person will want to boot up my computer to do
diagnostics. I want to secure my documents. I thought I could just password
protect my user name and then setup another user for the repair person using
windows xp. But how secure is my stuff? Can he get into my files?

itsme

Remove the hard disk. Any reputable service center can install a replacement hard disk for
temporary purposes.

Dave




"itsme" <> wrote in message news:...
| I have to bring my laptop in for a repair. Something with the screen. But I
| can assume that the repair person will want to boot up my computer to do
| diagnostics. I want to secure my documents. I thought I could just password
| protect my user name and then setup another user for the repair person using
| windows xp. But how secure is my stuff? Can he get into my files?
|
|

David H. Lipman

On Fri, 8 Oct 2004 16:28:43 -0400, "itsme" <>
wrote:

>I have to bring my laptop in for a repair. Something with the screen. But I
>can assume that the repair person will want to boot up my computer to do
>diagnostics. I want to secure my documents. I thought I could just password
>protect my user name and then setup another user for the repair person using
>windows xp. But how secure is my stuff? Can he get into my files?
>
#######################
If he boots it w/ a boot disc, I believe he can get into your files.
I would back up the files on other hard drives, either another PC or a
shell acount. Then you can delete them from the laptop and restore
them later.
If you prefer to leave them on the laptop, look at the attrib command.
attrib +h mydocu~1 might hide it.
donnie

donnie

donnie wrote:
> On Fri, 8 Oct 2004 16:28:43 -0400, "itsme" <>
> wrote:
>
>
>>I have to bring my laptop in for a repair. Something with the screen. But I
>>can assume that the repair person will want to boot up my computer to do
>>diagnostics. I want to secure my documents. I thought I could just password
>>protect my user name and then setup another user for the repair person using
>>windows xp. But how secure is my stuff? Can he get into my files?
>>
>
> #######################
> If he boots it w/ a boot disc, I believe he can get into your files.
> I would back up the files on other hard drives, either another PC or a
> shell acount. Then you can delete them from the laptop and restore
> them later.
> If you prefer to leave them on the laptop, look at the attrib command.
> attrib +h mydocu~1 might hide it.
> donnie
>
It all depends what operating system you have on your laptop and what
kind of security settings you have. If you are running XP or 2000, it
is possilble to reset the Administrator account password, you cannot get
into the system without reseting the password, therefore you will know
if somebody has been in your machine if the password for the
Administrator account was changed. That is of course if the only other
accounts on your system is yours, the guest (which should be disabled or
removed) and the Administrator. If any have been changed you can
confront them with legal action.

If you are still on 98 then, you are wide open. Follow Dave's advice
and remove the HD. As Dave said, they should be able to get a
replacement. Explain the situation to them, they will understand

Jay
http://habaneronetworks.com

Jay Calvert

"itsme" <> wrote in message
news:...
> I have to bring my laptop in for a repair. Something with the screen. But
I
> can assume that the repair person will want to boot up my computer to do
> diagnostics. I want to secure my documents. I thought I could just
password
> protect my user name and then setup another user for the repair person
using
> windows xp. But how secure is my stuff? Can he get into my files?

Take it to a quality repair shop.

I see confidential files all the time.

Nothing ever leaves my office to anyone but my client! The names of my
clients are confidential.

The other advice in this thread are good - back up your files to another hdd
and removing the hdd for service are valid.

As this is a laptop - how secure is your laptop on a daily basis?

someone2
>
>

someone

In article <z2J9d.654405$M95.291972@pd7tw1no>, Jay Calvert wrote:
>donnie wrote:
>> On Fri, 8 Oct 2004 16:28:43 -0400, "itsme" <>
>> wrote:
>>>I have to bring my laptop in for a repair. Something with the screen. But I
>>>can assume that the repair person will want to boot up my computer to do
>>>diagnostics. I want to secure my documents. I thought I could just password
>>>protect my user name and then setup another user for the repair person using
>>>windows xp. But how secure is my stuff? Can he get into my files?
>>
>> If he boots it w/ a boot disc, I believe he can get into your files.

>It all depends what operating system you have on your laptop and what
>kind of security settings you have.

Physical access beats five aces.

I know it might come as a shock to you, but it only takes a few minutes
to open the case, REMOVE THE HARD DRIVE, and install it into another
computer that is running a different operating system that doesn't give
a d4mn about your so-called security settings. If the drive is not
encrypted with a strong algorithm, the data is now 0wn3d. Oh, and do
you remember the old 'diskcopy' command that has been in MS-DOS since
version 1.0? Most operating systems have such a command, and it's not
restricted to floppy drives, AND doesn't care about security settings.
It's just copying bits from one drive to another.

Is that _LIKELY_ to happen? I dunno - I don't know what repair shop
the original poster is using. Assuming a reputable facility, the answer
is "probably not" - the repair shop likely has more than enough work to
do than to have the spare time snooping your disk. But don't _EVER_ think
that something is secure when it's not in your physical possession.

Old guy

Moe Trin

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itsme wrote:
| I have to bring my laptop in for a repair. Something with the screen.
But I
| can assume that the repair person will want to boot up my computer to do
| diagnostics. I want to secure my documents. I thought I could just
password
| protect my user name and then setup another user for the repair person
using
| windows xp. But how secure is my stuff? Can he get into my files?
|
|
If you don't want to go for removing the hard disk... then ....

1st, go for a VERY reputable repairer
2nd, remove to a backup any files you really don't want to be there,
then use a file shredder to remove all trace of them on the laptop
3rd, use something like gnupg to encrypt the rest
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andy smart