Security issue with old hard disk

[dantheman]

Hi,

Excuse me but I didn't quite know how to formulate the title.

They've recently setup a new hard disk in my notebook (gone from 40G to 80G) and i had just installed XPHome (with no data) on the ol' 40. After they finished the work, they failed to give me back my disk and i forgot to ask them for it.
I'm out of town and was wondering if it was worth asking it back?
I now realize that they also made a few bucks on it (by keeping it) but i can live with that.

[f0dder]

If the 40gig disk previous had data on it, but you installed XP (and did a format in the process), some of the old data will still be recoverable. Most people probably wouldn't bother trying a recover, especially since they don't get a "blank" disk (ie., if you had just formatted it but not installed XP, or if you had deleted the partitions or whatever).

I guess what to do depends on what kind of data you had on it. In a similar scenario, I wouldn't bother - (almost ) all my sensitive data is encrypted, so at most a badguy would be able to tell my browsing history, see some (non-xrated) picture of me and my friends, stare puzzled at passwords.exe (yes, I drink my own kool-aid), et cetera.

If you had credit-card info or similar lying around in plain.txt files, you might want to call them and get the disk back, though... just in case.

[mouser]

regardless if it has data on it, you should get it back, you never know when you might need a spare laptop hd.

[dantheman]

Thanks guys, your input is much appreciated!

Indeed, i was thinking about that. What if my new drive goes caput? At least i would have an old one to work with.
Will try to get the old one back.

[40hz]

Security issues aside, you could also purchase an external drive enclosure and install you old drive in it. Then you'd have a nice backup drive to use. I'd tell them "nice try guys" and ask for your old drive back.

[dantheman]

Security issues aside, you could also purchase an external drive enclosure and install you old drive in it. Then you'd have a nice backup drive to use. I'd tell them "nice try guys" and ask for your old drive back.

Now that's an interesting one! I say!
Thanks a bunch 40hz!