Privacy and Confidentiality Concerns sending Notebook into Lenovo Service

I need to send my T450s in to have the screen replaced. I've received the shipping box with instructions. The instruction call for me to provide my password.


I'm concerned about privacy and data confidentiality. I'm thinking the only sure way to address this is to put a different hard drive in the computer.


How do you get comfortable with this?


Thanks!


Louis

 

If you're sending in a laptop to have the screen replaced, you can remove the hard drive before mailing it in--I would confirm this over the phone with support, but that's been the general practice. You will need to disable your BIOS password if you do have one, however.

 

I haven't had any issues with Lenovo - have RMAed a laptop before (Y50) - I gave them the password and nothing happened - they just logged into windows, diagnosed the issue, replaced the part and shipped it back. I checked with event logs and they machine was only on for 20 mins or so.

 

I would not send a drive with my personal data and applications.

 

The person I got on the phone wasn't very helpful. I'll try again. Thanks.

 

If you're able to plug the laptop into an external monitor, you could always clone your disc onto an external drive, factory reset the computer, and then when you get it back restore the image.

 

So I've used the built in function with Windows 7 to backup that includes an image. I'm assuming this image is a clone that I can just restore when I get the machine back. Is that correct? I've used it many times over the years to backup but I've never had to use it to restore.

Louis

 

You should answer this question yourself, and it involves testing. First of all, never destroy the source. Burn that in your brain.

In other words, do your backup then pull out the source drive. Install a different drive to do the restore.

At a personal level, I've always used Acronis TrueImage to do my cloning.

That said, I've always sent machines in for repair with the exact drive and factory image Lenovo shipped to me.

 

I've never used the W7 backup function, I use software to do my images (Macrium). What I would do in your circumstance is restore the backup image onto a *different* HDD and see if it works; and if it does, proceed to factory reset the original HDD.

This is a way of testing the image file's integrity though it is not comprehensive.

@Thors.Hammer is right, you shouldn't destroy the source but the reason I say "I would" is because of the warranty laws of my country. There is no similar act to the US saying that you can replace the HDD in your computer without voiding the warranty as long as you don't break anything.

Warranty companies here (they are all third party that the laptop brands outsource to) will absolutely void my warranty if the unit does not come back in *complete* original components with no warranty stickers torn or broken.

So I would advise for you to check your local warranty laws and see how this applies to you. If in your country you have similar protection as people in the US, then you could probably just swap out the drive and send that in to Lenovo with a factory image on it. But if, like me, your warranty would be voided by doing that, you may need to include the original hard drive which obviously makes things riskier for your data.

 

I'm in the US so I shouldn't have a problem.