laptop stolen 2 weeks ago in dublin

polishpaddy

And they stole my gmail also.
Any ideas?:mad:

Auvers

polishpaddy wrote: »

And they stole my gmail also.
Any ideas?:mad:

change your passwords asap

polishpaddy

I tried they changed it already too.:mad:

Jackovarian

there must be some mechanism whereby you can tell gmail this...

also, what make and model were your machines, so as nobody is selling then on any sites, coz if they are you may be able to track em.

Auvers

https://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/request.py?contact_type=ara&ctx=accounts

just follow the steps

Standard Toaster

Hard luck polishpaddy.
Install www.truecrypt.org on your next laptop.

daftdave

The_Edge wrote: »

Hard luck polishpaddy.
Install www.truecrypt.org on your next laptop.

first time ive come across this, is it good ??

whats the story with it, just enter a password when the p.c. boots ?

Standard Toaster

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TrueCrypt

Yes. Like almost all thse type of products it needs a small amount of unencrypted code to initialize themselves on boot.
This is normally stored on track 0, with the BIOS doing handoff to the first sector on that track (the MBR) during bootup from the HD (assuming it has the system partition).

So, without the password, 99.99% of the drive is unreadable/jibberish 1/0s

unnameduser

Sorry to hear about it Polish paddy. I once had 3 laptops stolen from me so I know the feeling eek.

The_Edge wrote: »

Hard luck polishpaddy.
Install www.truecrypt.org on your next laptop.

Nice linky. Have you tried it. Any feedback?

Standard Toaster

It's great. I use it and SafeBoot. (Paided product)

If you're dual booting Windows & linux it can fall over here.
Linux's boot loader installs itself to the same location on the hdd as truecrypt (afaik)

Can encrypted files be accessed by either OS?
Supposedly yes. Getting it to work is another matter though.

If you have just the one OS it's perfect. Your forced into creating a bootable cdr during the encryption so if you do forget your password or have issues with corruption you can still gain access.

You can't get better value then free too.

Overheal

for the sake of hindsight how was your lappy stolen exactly?

fatal

Is it still possible to format the hard drive and re-install windows in the case of installing the recommended softwares

Standard Toaster

Sure it is. The MBR would be just overwrtten.

Main point here is the data is encrypted from prying eyes but the harddrive can be easliy wiped. The data on the drive can far outweigh the cost of the laptop.

Oh, you can undo the encryption process to if you decide to....say if you want to repartition and the like.

Capt'n Midnight

In the BIOS most laptops allow you to put on a startup password without which its a brick
yes it can be bypassed, but you'd have to really know what you are doing and you have to dissamble the laptop first

Again in the BIOS hard drives can also be passworded , if you use the same one as the startup one it you dont have to enter a second time.

both of these mean your data is still recoverable by expensive data recovery , which will cost more than a new hard drive

Part of me thinks that using the hardware password instead of the windows one might be a better idea for some home laptops

truecrypt would beat the windows password handsdown for security

Cabaal

polishpaddy wrote: »

I tried they changed it already too.:mad:

should have changed any saved passwords as soon as your laptop was stolen

Khannie

polishpaddy wrote: »

And they stole my gmail also.
Any ideas?:mad:

My idea is that you could catch them because of this.

If gmail log login by IP address then you can get the IP address they logged in from. Get the gardaí to phone that ISP. Should be a simple matter to track down the owner from there tbh.

Anti

Khannie wrote: »

My idea is that you could catch them because of this.

If gmail log login by IP address then you can get the IP address they logged in from. Get the gardaí to phone that ISP. Should be a simple matter to track down the owner from there tbh.

Yeah i tried that before, they guards just arnt interested

polishpaddy

I don't know what to do.
I am a tiler not a computer man.

Anti

follow the post on the first page about recovering your gmail info. About the laptop all you can do is report it to the guards.

polishpaddy

I forgot my other email passwords so it won't be easy.
I will ring the guards too.

Tom Dunne

Anti wrote: »

Yeah i tried that before, they guards just arnt interested

I recall a thread, either here, or in the Laptops forum where the Guards were interested.

When the scumbag who stole the laptop switched it on, MSN fired up. The laptop owner was able to get the IP address of where "he" was logged in, it was an Eircom address, and was traced to a house in the locality and the laptop was recovered.

Anti

Good to hear that. Maybe they took a disliking to me

Jackovarian

again, post make model and specs of laptops also any specific conditions i.e. scratches.

they may be for sale now on a website or something!

seriously, could be a longshot.