How to Not Get Ripped Off With Computer Repair
A couple of months back the BBC in the UK did an investigation on computer repair technicians in the UK going though the files of computers brought in to be repaired.
When you take your car to have it repaired you expect the repair shop employees to not go through your car looking for things to steal.
We don’t think about the files on our computer when we take it to a repair shop. But like your personal effects in the glove box or the trunk of your car your files on your hard drive are your personal effects and are private.
How do you safe guard your personal data? Such as your images, passwords, and financial files?
One way is to copy them to another type of media such as a CD or DVD (for some people that would be a lot of DVD’s!) or an external storage device then delete them from your hard drive in the computer.
Another way to keep your files private is to encrypt the files and not store the password on the hard drive in the computer!
Both of the above solutions are clumsy, time consuming, and can lead to data loss if not property done.
As a computer repair tech of over twenty years I don’t take my computers to a shop to be repaired, I do it myself. But I also have three separate storage devices that my data is backed up on a daily basis.
Why three? Because I had some corruption on one and one failed when I needed to restore some data after a destructive virus attack. (See even techs get hit by the thieves!) So I decided to keep three separate backups: My server, an external hard drive, and my laptop.
If you use the default folder My Documents under Windows Operating System you will know exactly where your files are.
By using the built in backup process with the Windows Operating System you can schedule a daily backup at the end of your work day or session. A feature of the backup system is to check the back up files for consistency with the originals files.
One problem with this setup is if your computer fails then you can not get in to the hard drive to delete your sensitive data.
So how do you get around the use of the My Documents folder on the Operating System hard drive?
By setting the options for each program you can store your files in a different location. By default most programs use the My Documents folder. Such as MS Word, when I setup my options I move the files from My Documents to another drive.
By using an encryption program such as PGP Desk you can create a folder on your drive then encrypt it, it will act as a separate drive. If you go this route be sure to not set the Auto Mount feature because that defeats the purpose of encrypting your data to keep prying techs from getting to the data. Using a log on ID and password will keep them from stealing your images, documents, and financial records.
By using an external drive it may be a little slower than the internal drive in the computer but your data will not be on the drive when you take it to be repaired. As above change then programs file storage location, unless you are making video’s you will see a little difference in the speed of access of the files.
Now when you take the computer to a repair shop and leave it to be repaired you don’t have to worry about your Facebook or My Space account user id and password being stolen or your images showing up on some nefarious web site for some losers to ogle at.
As for the repair shop that you pick to repair your failed computer how would you go about finding out if they are honest not only in their dealings with you on parts and labor, but that they will not go through your hard drive looking for anything they can steal?
One way in the USA is to look up the shop at the BBB web site and check their rating (mine has an A rating) and look for any complaints.
Another is to ask your friends about the service the shop provides. Check the www for complaints against the name of the shop, sometimes you can find things in some forums where someone has had a problem that was not resolved by the owner of the shop.
Your best choice is to do it yourself, DIY Computer Repair.
If you are a beginner, novice, intermediate, or pro computer user you should check out how to repair some aspects of your computer. Not only will you insure your data is secure, you will save yourself a lot of time and money.
If you are interested in learning how to repair a computer from a Pro, my Private Members Only section is open for new members.
By: Monte Russell
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Filed under Computers And Technology by on Nov 20th, 2010. 