How Do You Protect Data During PC Repair

[rhood]

How do you protect your data and files when taking your computer to a shop for repair? Lots of sensitive stuff there.

[jnieman]

How do you protect your data and files when taking your computer to a shop for repair? Lots of sensitive stuff there.

Just a thought, but a computer geek friend of mine told me to back up everything on a portable hard drive. You can buy them on Amazon.

[aljetmet]

Just a thought, but a computer geek friend of mine told me to back up everything on a portable hard drive. You can buy them on Amazon.

Then delete the sensitive files off your computer's hard drive before sendiong to the shop....

Hoepfully your PC is working good enough to do that...

[uujudy]

How do you protect your data and files when taking your computer to a shop for repair? Lots of sensitive stuff there.

rhood, I back up everything to a tiny backup drive, but I'm more concerned about handing over my computer to complete strangers.

It's not only the 3 years of Turbo Tax data I worry about, it's also the Excel file with ALL my account numbers and passwords on it. I heard that you can never completely delete anything from a computer. Does anyone here know it that's true?

[EdV]

I use RoboForm to store all of my sensitive information, login names, passwords, etc. It keeps this in a special highly encrypted database on my computer that is protected by my special password that I only use for Roboform.

So the technician can see the database but cannot view its contents. RoboForm is also great for automatically filling in those tedious forms if you purchase items over the Internet.

Here's a link to the Roboform site (http://www.roboform.com).

[jnieman]

rhood, I back up everything to a tiny backup drive, but I'm more concerned about handing over my computer to complete strangers.

It's not only the 3 years of Turbo Tax data I worry about, it's also the Excel file with ALL my account numbers and passwords on it. I heard that you can never completely delete anything from a computer. Does anyone here know it that's true?

Maybe you could hire a technician to come to your home to fix it. That way you can keep an eye on him.

[ajbrown]

Here is a couple of tools that may be useful.

Securely Erase Files from Your Hard Drive by Britec - YouTube



Securely Erase Files from Your Hard Drive by Britec - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jILb8kshF2c)

[FatherFife]

A hard drive uses a File Allocation Table (FAT) that keeps track of where a file is located, how large it is, beginning and ending sectors, etc. When you delete a file a single bit in the FAT table is changed to make the file not visable and to make the area useable for something else. This is why if you use an "undelete" program you can restore a file many times. It just changes that bit back. Since the area on the drive was available for writing new data, if you've added and deleted new data since the deletion your recovered file may be corrupt.

[FatherFife]

I use a thumb drive for my sensitive files. It came already setup with a secure password protected folder so even if I lose it they would have to decrypt it to see my stuff.

[rde3036]

The easiest way is to use a thumb drive or a USB hard drive. These can be encrypted and can be removed from the computer for secure storage. Either of these drives are much more robust than CD or DVD storage.

[GordyM]

I have been doing IT work (PC's -Servers - Networks - etc....) for over 35 years now. I will be moving to TV the first of October and living in the village of Woodbury. I would be more than happy to make a few "house calls" to help people out. Plus it would be a good way for me to make new friends in TV.

Just a thought.....

Gordy

[JoelJohnson]

You can store your data on "the cloud" thru such things as DropBox (Dropbox.com)

[buzzy]

You can store your data on "the cloud" thru such things as DropBox (Dropbox.com)

I don't feel comfortable storing personal or financial data on the cloud. Servers get hacked into all the time.

[donkobes]

Unless you have a serious hardware problem, you should bring the techie to your home to fix your problems. It's far cheaper and the computer never leaves your sight.Also, you don't have to be without it for a week while they think about repairing it.

Find a techie at: The Villages Computer Club (http://thevillagescomputerclub.com/) >\Look under the Tech Help Tab.

[Gat0r]

Don Kobes @391-9405 will fix any computer problem you have...period