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Presumably a second hand hard drive on eBay did not cost more than £5.
If the seller returns your money and pays for the return postage, send it back to him.
If not, put it in the nearest skip and write the £5 off.
Having dug a little further, the paypal transaction does give the full name of the seller (though it does also say unverified) and the surname does match the name on the CV on the drive, as does the name of the town in the item location (claimed) in the ebay listing, so this does seem to make the theft possibility less likely ...
I don't know if the owner of the data knows that the drive wasn't wiped, or thought the laptop/drive was broken and the data couldn't be read ...
Bernard
The guy probably upgraded to a bigger drive or to an SSD on his laptop and sold that one without wiping it. Format it then run a full disk check on it so that bad blocks are mapped out.
The the first names of the seller and CV don't match, so it's (probably) not the same person, but they could be in the same household, or perhaps a relative who thinks they know about computers who lives close (not a very common surname), the same seller also sold a laptop as "for spares" without a hard drive at the same time ...
The drive diagnostics show quite a few sectors as "Offline_Uncorrectable" and the "Reallocated_Event_Count" is huge, so I don't think it's going to be fixable even with a full disk check ...
Bernard
The sellers feedback was low ~20 but was 100%, however since I bid/bought the person who bought the "for spares" laptop without the hard drive did give neutral feedback as the laptop wasn't quite the same model as advertised ...
Having dug a little further (I've peeled off the address label on the small jiffy bag that the drive was sent to me in), the previous address underneath does match the CV address, so it is almost certain to be from the same household ...
Bernard
I have just had a whip round in the office to see what others would do.
If you have bought stolen goods, you can be brought to court. Talk to the Police and talk to EBAY.
The hard drive will have a mac address on it. If the drive is part of a stolen laptop, it could be traced from usage over the internet down to you. It may even have 'tracker' programs on it, if it is a new drive and the information in sensative to the owner/ work.
You need to contact Ebay incase it is stolen, so you have a chance of retrieving money back (was it a Paypal transaction?) and the Police to check if it has been registered as stolen.
If you had a laptop stolen, would you like to recieve the data on it back?
It may be the laptop has been sold for spare parts because the screen was damaged or some other defect and the seller is forwarding parts as spares and it is totally above board BUT be safe, watch your own back and stay above the law. If you format the drive and its traced back to you, how can you explain? I didn't know it was stolen does not count towards innocents in court.
Shame on all of you who say dont contact the police!
Andy
Wow! Are you sure you were at the office, not the pub?
The only hard drives I know with Mac addresses are NAS ones not laptop drives. The tracker stuff is hilarious it would only load with the operating system and unless it's going in an identical laptop then that operating system is unlikely to load.
Checking with the Police to check if it has been registered as stolen? They'll have a description and an identikit picture of the hard drive, I'm sure it's the only of its type in the country.
He's not going to contact the police, just as well he didn't because if you'd bothered to read the thread Andy you'd see the OP just above you confirming it's was sold from the same address.
I don't think that there ever was a question of it being stolen but it does seemingly contain some personal information, the owner of which might prefer for it to remain just that; personal.
If I'd bought the drive, I'd go to the police for advice. They will be able to offer far better advice than anyone on here. And if there should ever be some sort of comeback, which I rather doubt, at least it wil be on record that you've made he effort to speak to the right people.
I do see your point but I think there'd be less chance of the personal information remaining personal once the police and perhaps eBay had a look. He'd already read the CV so he may as well contact that person, just as you would if you found a briefcase in the street with a CV in it.
Quote: I'd go to the police for advice. They will be able to offer far better advice than anyone on here.
Very true.
Quote: just as you would if you found a briefcase in the street with a CV in it.
Actually Chris, I wouldn't. I'd give that to the police as well.
In these days of ambulance-chasing lawyers and the comensation culture that's sadly become embedded in peoples' minds, I'd have as little to do with anything containing someone else's personal stuff as possible.
And before anyone says that I could look inside and then deny doing so, that could be simply disproven using fingerprint technology.
Quote: The only hard drives I know with Mac addresses are NAS ones not laptop drives. The tracker stuff is hilarious it would only load with the operating system and unless it's going in an identical laptop then that operating system is unlikely to load.
Sorry, I meant the unique hardware readable serial number!
As for my workplace.............you never asked if I worked in a pub!
It's funny that this subject is so divisive. Some people need to learn to distinguish stolen goods and loss property.
The police have enough to deal with, they're already trying to get out of the Lost Property business!
ReportMyloss allows the public to record lost property online, get a loss report number and for the Police to search the information nationally via the NMPR.The taking of lost property reports is not a legal requirement for the police however the Home Office recommend forces continue to offer the service unless a suitable alternative can be provided.
Quote: Some people need to learn to distinguish stolen goods and loss property.
But this is neither.
All I'm suggesting is that the OP might seek advice from someone with some authority.
Quote: The police have enough to deal with
And this kind of thing is one of the things that they are paid to deal with.
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