Urgent - Stolen laptop

mach1982

Cavehill Red wrote: »

I'd like to think you wouldn't do that, because not only would it be a despicable act, but it would also be harming the wrong target, assuming you mean to have a go at me and not the computer's owner, and in addition it would be entirely illegal.

Hopefully the rest of the computer repair industry is not similarly inclined to illegality and outright, ill-aimed spite.

Edit: I just noticed that you're actually a schoolkid, so I'm going to work on the assumption that either a) you're lying and don't work at all, b) you don't work in computer repairs, since you don't have a computer of your own yet or c) would not be permitted by any responsible boss to act as you describe. In short, grow up.

Your one that needs to grown up .Just because he a kid doesn't mean might not work in a computer shop part time . Just because he a kid doesn't mean his is stupid , if he's in to computers he might have built his own and take apart quite few.

Spacedog

longshot here...

connect to his wifi router and find his mac address in the reciently connected devices in the logs. mac address might also be on the dell support site for the asset tag number.

get a laptop and an antenna, and go war driving through your area searching for the mac address.

as for your disk, it is unlikely the platters are damaged, even from a tumble down the stairs. if the platter has shattered it would sound like ratteling bits of glass when you pick up or shake the disk.

get a torx set, and open it up, if the platters are intact your data is recoverable.

smokiebeverage

Spacedog wrote: »

get a torx set, and open it up, if the platters are intact your data is recoverable.

Do not do that, you'll do more damage than good, unless you have a cleanroom at home!

Last night annoyed me but I'll repeat my offer from post 20, I'll have a look at the drive, we are partnered with disklabs in the UK who have a clean room and can give you a definitive answer to the state of the disk. Have a look at their site and make your own opinion. The offer still stands, we'll look locally first and then send it to the UK, it will all happen at no cost to your friend except for the shipping cost to get the drive to the UK. If the document is retrievable then and only then will a cost be applied to the retrieval, you can pay disklabs directly, we'll still charge nothing. I can't say fairer than that, the rest is up to you.


PS Spacedog great idea on the WiFi, its a long shot but it could be a runner

OP Just noticed its been to the UK, if its been clean roomed and the platters were smashed you wont have gotten it back so I suppose thats the end of that. Best of luck with the search.

mach1982

Spacedog wrote: »

longshot here...

connect to his wifi router and find his mac address in the reciently connected devices in the logs. mac address might also be on the dell support site for the asset tag number.

get a laptop and an antenna, and go war driving through your area searching for the mac address.

.

That could work, if they are dumb enough to use it .Though might be to technical for the OP.

Cavehill Red

Spacedog wrote: »

longshot here...

connect to his wifi router and find his mac address in the reciently connected devices in the logs. mac address might also be on the dell support site for the asset tag number.

get a laptop and an antenna, and go war driving through your area searching for the mac address.

I'm not entirely sure what this means, but it sounds pro-active and might possibly give us a location to provide the police with solid evidence if it came off, so I've sent your post to another lad who knows about this sort of thing and is also trying to help (the lad who sourced the various repair people for the hard drive.) Hopefully he'll know how to do this and we'll give it a go.
Oh, and rattling glass. That's what the external hard drive sounded like alright. It's smithereens, apparently.

mach1982

Cavehill Red wrote: »

I'm not entirely sure what this means, but it sounds pro-active and might possibly give us a location to provide the police with solid evidence if it came off, so I've sent your post to another lad who knows about this sort of thing and is also trying to help (the lad who sourced the various repair people for the hard drive.) Hopefully he'll know how to do this and we'll give it a go.
Oh, and rattling glass. That's what the external hard drive sounded like alright. It's smithereens, apparently.

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

ironclaw

Cavehill Red wrote: »

I'm not entirely sure what this means, but it sounds pro-active and might possibly give us a location to provide the police with solid evidence if it came off, so I've sent your post to another lad who knows about this sort of thing and is also trying to help (the lad who sourced the various repair people for the hard drive.) Hopefully he'll know how to do this and we'll give it a go.
Oh, and rattling glass. That's what the external hard drive sounded like alright. It's smithereens, apparently.

Rattlingly glass could be the PCB. The platters wouldn't shatter like that. It takes a good bit of force to even bend them. I'd take the offer of getting the hard drive looked at in a proper clean room.

As for the War Drive idea, its a long shot but you might be lucky. You'll have to be fairly sure of the area though, its needle in a hay stack territory. Also, make sure your using decent antennas and someone who knows what they are at. Most war drivers would jump at the chance to do this sort of thing.

As an aside, I have the program http://www.gadgettrak.com/ and http://www.orbicule.com/undercover/ on my Mac. They also have Windows versions. Incredible software and when I tested it the results would have been more than enough to get me to the front door.

Cuddlesworth

Platter shattered? Is this the crowd in Phibsboro again or a entirely separate company with nothing to do from them and talking directly to you. I only ask because having taken a hard-drive apart and tried to smash the magnetic platters with a hammer on a anvil I got the impression that was physically impossible. Hence the reason the us army cuts the drives and hence the reason we pay to have them shredded or drilled.

At least I know who to tell people to avoid in future. Take smokiebeverage's offer up. I'm pretty sure thats one of the company's we have dealt with.

Cuddlesworth

bedlam wrote: »

Datarecovery.ie have a clean room.

And the tools needed for correct platter recovery and removal?

Cavehill Red

ironclaw wrote: »

Rattlingly glass could be the PCB. The platters wouldn't shatter like that. It takes a good bit of force to even bend them. I'd take the offer of getting the hard drive looked at in a proper clean room.

As for the War Drive idea, its a long shot but you might be lucky. You'll have to be fairly sure of the area though, its needle in a hay stack territory. Also, make sure your using decent antennas and someone who knows what they are at. Most war drivers would jump at the chance to do this sort of thing.

As an aside, I have the program http://www.gadgettrak.com/ and http://www.orbicule.com/undercover/ on my Mac. They also have Windows versions. Incredible software and when I tested it the results would have been more than enough to get me to the front door.

As I said, there are very strong suspicions relating to who the culprits are, due to a spate of burglaries in the area in a short period of time since they moved in, and the fact they're dealing from the house.
But without sufficient grounds, the Gardai feel unable to request a warrant. This, if it came off, might provide such grounds.
Next question is, where do you get an antenna and the software to go about this?

mach1982

Cavehill Red wrote: »

Next question is, where do you get an antenna and the software to go about this?

Check out the wilipeada link I posted , it's all there .BTW it all free.

Cavehill Red

I actually googled and that came up last night. I get the concept, but it seems some sort of booster antenna and software is required to go about this. I'm just wondering where they can be sourced from.

digme

Cavehill Red wrote: »

I actually googled and that came up last night. I get the concept, but it seems some sort of booster antenna and software is required to go about this. I'm just wondering where they can be sourced from.

Cavehill sorry to hear about your friends work, post over in the security forum, there's loads of lads there who would have a vast amount of experience doing what you need.

mach1982

Cavehill Red wrote: »

I actually googled and that came up last night. I get the concept, but it seems some sort of booster antenna and software is required to go about this. I'm just wondering where they can be sourced from.

Just Google Pringel can antenna , or Tin can Antenna

Cavehill Red

digme wrote: »

Cavehill sorry to hear about your friends work, post over in the security forum, there's loads of lads there who would have a vast amount of experience doing what you need.

Forgive my idiocy, but I'm not seeing a security forum. Could you maybe give me a link to it?

digme

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=24
id say the lads would have the gear too, all the best

minikin

Hi Cavehill,

Excuse the obvious question but does your friend have any hard copies of earlier versions of the thesis? Would be easy enough to scan and ocr them.
(Most printing companies offer such a digitisation service)

Cavehill Red

minikin wrote: »

Hi Cavehill,

Excuse the obvious question but does your friend have any hard copies of earlier versions of the thesis? Would be easy enough to scan and ocr them.
(Most printing companies offer such a digitisation service)

Short answer is no. Longer answer is that he did find a print out of the introduction from very early on, with advisor notes on it, and is working from that. He reckons it's sparked memories about the rest of the work. He's ploughing ahead at the moment, but effectively he's had to start from just after scratch, and that's pretty gutting I reckon when he was nearly finished. Advisor has no printed versions on record either. It's just all-in a perfect storm, really.

Saruman

Spacedog wrote: »

longshot here...

connect to his wifi router and find his mac address in the reciently connected devices in the logs. mac address might also be on the dell support site for the asset tag number.

get a laptop and an antenna, and go war driving through your area searching for the mac address.

How would that help out of curiosity? It would require the laptop to be broadcasting an SSID. Simply having the laptop on and connected to a wireless network is no good because the MAC will be hidden behind a NAT device like a router/firewall.

Is there something I'm missing? Do all wifi enabled devices just broadcast out their MAC addresses?

Anyway I will keep an eye out.

SouperComputer

Man this sucks. He didnt even email it to himself at some stage?

For recovery, CBL (http://www.cbldatarecovery.co.uk/emergency.html?id=1)and or Convar (google convar 9/11) are THE guys to work with. Forget the rest. No comment on Computers Unlimited take what they say with a pinch of salt. No offence intended to them, but it sounds like you need REAL pros. Shattered platters are very rare you are entering into crazy sustained high G loads or incredibly odd harmonics. Head crashes are not uncommon of course.

Open a ticket with CBL and see what they say. They are based in the UK thus are closer. Even if a platter is shattered, its still possible that the data he needs is on a different platter (assuming multi platter drive). If the work is that valuable, I guess he might have to take out a loan to pay for it. Again though, you Im sure you could work out a discount\carrot given that other "experts" wrote the drive off and if one of these guys get the data (very possible) they will look awesome. In my experience the drive is not written off until one of these places looks at it.

The wardriving idea is an interesting one. A longshot but if you have the MAC address from the NIC on the laptop its worth a shot. Im sure you could beg\borrow either equipement or people to help you out on the security forum.

Cloud computing gets a lot of flack, but there's a lot to be said for something like dropbox for people like this.

Best of luck OP hope you guys get the data you need.

Cavehill Red

The hard drive is with some firm in England who have inspected it and said it's irretrievable. "Smithereens" was the word I was told. The hard drive isn't going to be of any use unless the US Military or someone decide to take an interest.
We're focused on trying to track down the laptop at this point in time. There is a reward for any information leading to its return.

investment

Cavehill Red wrote: »

The hard drive is with some firm in England who have inspected it and said it's irretrievable. "Smithereens" was the word I was told. The hard drive isn't going to be of any use unless the US Military or someone decide to take an interest.
We're focused on trying to track down the laptop at this point in time. There is a reward for any information leading to its return.

Look this is your best option

1)Ask the police where the guy they think nicked it lives

2)Go to his house and offer him an ward plus you'll drop the charges if can get it back for you.

3)Go to his house and ask to buy a computer or ask him does he know where to buy a computer like your one

Use your head????:rolleyes:

Cavehill Red

investment wrote: »

Look this is your best option

1)Ask the police where the guy they think nicked it lives

2)Go to his house and offer him an ward plus you'll drop the charges if can get it back for you.

3)Go to his house and ask to buy a computer or ask him does he know where to buy a computer like your one

Use your head????:rolleyes:

There's a reward poster around the corner from their house. If they were going to just give it back, they'd probably have done it by now, or at least called to find out about the reward.
They're dodgy paranoid drug dealers. I don't know how they'd take to a bunch of lads or even just one turning up at the door asking about a computer they nicked which was mentioned online, on the radio and is up on posters near their house.

investment

Cavehill Red wrote: »

There's a reward poster around the corner from their house. If they were going to just give it back, they'd probably have done it by now, or at least called to find out about the reward.
They're dodgy paranoid drug dealers. I don't know how they'd take to a bunch of lads or even just one turning up at the door asking about a computer they nicked which was mentioned online, on the radio and is up on posters near their house.

ok i see your problem,

what if you hired a tough guy from limerick to come up and get your laptop back from the drug dealer??

Cavehill Red

investment wrote: »

ok i see your problem,

what if you hired a tough guy from limerick to come up and get your laptop back from the drug dealer??

I suggested this last week. Two large friends were down from Belfast. It got vetoed. :mad:

GarRoIT

Cavehill Red wrote: »

I'd like to think you wouldn't do that, because not only would it be a despicable act, but it would also be harming the wrong target, assuming you mean to have a go at me and not the computer's owner, and in addition it would be entirely illegal.

Hopefully the rest of the computer repair industry is not similarly inclined to illegality and outright, ill-aimed spite.

Edit: I just noticed that you're actually a schoolkid, so I'm going to work on the assumption that either a) you're lying and don't work at all, b) you don't work in computer repairs, since you don't have a computer of your own yet or c) would not be permitted by any responsible boss to act as you describe. In short, grow up.

Ive worked in a local computer repair shop since I just turned 16, started it on ty work experience, i actually own a small percent of the company now, nothing else to do with my money. how would not reporting it be illegal? I am my own boss so I can do what I like. I probably wouldnt do it anyway. Just mainly trying to scare the OP into apprecating the comunity on boards and to not be so rude. I over react a lot, im probably trolling but its fun.

GarRoIT

mach1982 wrote: »

Your one that needs to grown up .Just because he a kid doesn't mean might not work in a computer shop part time . Just because he a kid doesn't mean his is stupid , if he's in to computers he might have built his own and take apart quite few.

Thanks 6 out of 11 As in the JC so no im not stupid, To be honest ive never built a computer. I specialise in Virus Removal/Computer Security but ive replaced the odd HDD installed windows a couple of hundred times ect, thanks for the support nyway

The_B_Man

Saruman wrote: »

How would that help out of curiosity? It would require the laptop to be broadcasting an SSID. Simply having the laptop on and connected to a wireless network is no good because the MAC will be hidden behind a NAT device like a router/firewall.

Is there something I'm missing? Do all wifi enabled devices just broadcast out their MAC addresses?

Anyway I will keep an eye out.

Nope, thats incorrect to be quite honest. Unfortunately, theres nothing stopping me right now from scanning my area and getting the MAC address of every single PC and laptop connected to any and all my neighbours wireless routers.
Windows hides all this stuff on purpose, hence why theres no real Windows apps for it, but in linux based operating systems there is the ability to do this using aircrack. In fact, theres a distro called Backtrack that is built for security and comes with built in support for doing this.

The OP could download the bootable disc image, stick it in a laptop, hook up an aerial and go snooping around. If its connected to a wireless router and he gets lucky by driving passed, then it can be picked up no bother.

Just coz its "behind" and firewall or whatever doesnt mean a thing.

Saruman

Interesting... thanks B man.

I had tried windows apps like net stumbler but that only saw access point MAC's.

knuth

If the ops laptop was using XP and the laptop is turned on with wifi enabled then the card will also be transmitting beacons to it's known wireless networks, it doesn't need to be connected to ANY network for this to happen.

"connect to network even if not broadcasting"

Might be same for vista / 7, not sure.