Re: Loaned computer out. Can't locate now. Can I find it someway?

[Steven L Umbach]

I understand there are some computers [laptops I suppose] that have a phone
home feature to a security center or such for hopes to track it down though
to be effective a registration of some sort would need to have been done
first by the legitimate owner so that it could be reported as missing or
stolen and an alert put out. Assuming you did not have such on that computer
I would say you have little chance of tracking it down unless you eyeball it
somewhere. The lesson learned is that you should "sanitize" your computer of
any personal data or such that you do not want other users to ever access.
There are free and not free programs that can do such keeping in mind that
deleting a file by normal means does not really delete it but instead just
removes reference to it for the operating system. Example of such tools are
in the links below. A user would want to use a program to clean up their
tracks first and then a tool to scrub the hard drive to permanently
delete/overwrite deleted files and slack space.--- Steve

http://www.snapfiles.com/freeware/security/fwcookie.html
http://www.snapfiles.com/freeware/security/fwerase.html

"Jill" <Ji...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:E3241BED-3E93-4CD3...@microsoft.com...
>I loaned a computer hard drive, etc. to a nonprofit group. They say they
>no
> longer have it and I guess I have to believe them. But, is there any way
> I
> can tract that computer/hard drive to see if there has been any activity?
> Can I track any license numbers or software or hardware activity? It
> wasn't
> worth much, but I would like to at least have it back to delete downloads,
> other info.

[Shenan Stanley]

Jill wrote:
> I loaned a computer hard drive, etc. to a nonprofit group. They say
> they no longer have it and I guess I have to believe them. But, is
> there any way I can tract that computer/hard drive to see if there
> has been any activity? Can I track any license numbers or software or
> hardware activity? It wasn't worth much, but I would like to at
> least have it back to delete downloads, other info.

Did you loan a computer or computer parts out?
You originally said "Loaned Computer Out", then changed it to "Computer Hard
Drive, etc." -- which is it?

In any case - unless you wrote the serial numbers down - no - you aren't
going to find it. Even then you would likely have to physically touch and
check the serial number on any number of systems/components to prove that
computer was yours and you would have to have some definitive proof that you
bought the equipment with those particular serial numbers.

In other words - even when loaning it to people you know - document well
what is expected and what you are loaning - computer equipment or otherwise.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

[Jill]

Sorry. I loaned the entire system -- monitor, hard drive, everything. But,
I think you answered my question. It's gone. Thanks so much.

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

In news:E3241BED-3E93-4CD3...@microsoft.com,
Jill <Ji...@discussions.microsoft.com> typed:

> I loaned a computer hard drive, etc. to a nonprofit group. They say
> they no longer have it and I guess I have to believe them. But, is
> there any way I can tract that computer/hard drive to see if there
> has been any activity? Can I track any license numbers or software or
> hardware activity? It wasn't worth much, but I would like to at
> least have it back to delete downloads, other info.

No, sorry - as others have said, it's gone gone gone.
Did you get anything in writing from them? They ought to replace it for you,
even if they are a nonprofit, or compensate you for it.
I'd be mighty irritated if I were you.

[Patrick Dickey]

Jill wrote:
> Sorry. I loaned the entire system -- monitor, hard drive, everything. But,
> I think you answered my question. It's gone. Thanks so much.
>

Hi Jill,

You may want to contact the non-Profit group that you loaned it out
to, and find out if they cleaned it up before giving it away. Most of
the time (not all, however), they will clean it up (delete everything
that's not originally on the computer, or do a recovery with the Restore
disks if they have them) before they give it away. At least this will
alleviate any fears that you may have about your data being passed around.

Another thing to remember (for future reference) is, if you're
loaning a computer out to anyonw, for any reason (other then to a family
member who's borrowing it for a few days until their computer returns
from the shop for example), you hould always do a recovery on it before
giving it out. And, assuming that the "Recovery disk" isn't on a hidden
partition on the computer's hard drive (usually it's D: and a small
image file), you can use a program like Darik's Boot And Nuke, to
completely wipe the hard drive clean before doing the recovery. This
reduces the risk that someone will be able to extract data that you
thought was erased. However, if the computer is configured so that it
has the image file on the hard drive, DBAN is not a good choice, since
it wipes the entire drive without regard to any partitions.

Good luck in the future, and I hope this post gives you some
valuable information to use.

--
Patrick Dickey <pd1c...@removethis.msn.com>
http://www.pats-computer-solutions.com
Smile.. someone out there cares deeply for you.